Agriculture of Hertfordshire. 
293 
Prout, of London, bought about 450 acres of good heavy land 
near Sawbridgeworth, and proceeded with great spirit — making 
it an example of the improvement that may be effected in a 
short time with the aid of steam-cultivation — to clear away 
hedges, drain the land, fill up ditches, construct roads, and form 
reservoirs to feed the engine. 
A considerable quantity of the draining was done by one of 
the steam mole-ploughs of Mr. Edington of Chelmsford. The 
depth was 28 inches and width 14 feet, and the contract 35s. per 
acre, exclusive of digging and piping the main drains, which 
cost 5s. per acre. Owing to the wretched condition of the land 
it was thought advisable, instead of growing wheat on the out- 
going tenant's fallows, to give them a second year's fallow. This 
was done by repeated ploughing and cultivating with a 14 horse- 
power engine, including ploughing and subsoiling to a depth of 
14 inches. About 100 acres of Rivett wheat were sown without 
dressing, and, as might be expected after the two years' fallow 
and with the remarkably productive harvest of 1863, the crop was 
very heavy, reaching 8 quarters an acre on some portions that at 
the present date have been thrashed. The crop on well-farmed 
lands, of this description of wheat, was, in some instances, equally 
heavy ; the extraordinary season, in fact, levelled the distinctions 
of management. In future years we do not doubt that the benefit 
of thorough tillage with liberal farming will become even more 
apparent in the average quantity of corn that the farm will 
produce. 
The Home Farm of the Earl of Essex is remarkable for an 
extensive experiment on sewage brought from the adjoining 
town of Watford. The pipes were laid down eight years ago. 
The population from which the sewage is derived is about 4500 ; 
this does not include the whole parish. Pipes are laid under 
96 acres of land, comprising 35 acres of permanent pasture, 7 
to 10 acres of Italian rye-grass, and the rest arable. The soil of 
the neighbourhood is chiefly dry and gravelly, though this parti- 
cular spot is rather less light than the average. The pumps are 
worked by a 12 horse-power fixed engine, and throw daily GO, 000 
to 70,000 gallons, which if applied to one acre of land would 
moisten it to a depth of 3 inches. In practice, the whole of the 
sewage is applied during the winter to the 35 acres of permanent 
pasture, and early in March it is turned on to the rye-grass, and 
is confined entirely to that crop as long as it continues in growth. 
Cutting commences when the rye-grass is 1 foot high, which, in 
1863, was on the 11th of April; and, as fast as the land is 
cleared, it is again irrigated daily, receiving a greater or less 
quantity, according to the quantity of ground cleared. Five 
cuttings are obtained, and the crop of the year varies from 30 to 
