THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



14.5 



Cost of Ploughing by actual Test. 

 Furrows 5 inches by 10 inches. 



This was upon hard ground trodden on by the workmen for 

 a year, and equals 5.7 acres per 12 hours, from which subtract 

 one-tenth for shifting at headlands, gives 5.2 acres per 

 day. Thea 5.2 acres (amount ploughed by 10 horse-power) 

 X 4 = 20.8 acres (say 21 acres) for a 40bor3e power 1 oco- 

 iDotive platform. Therefore 33s. (the cost of eight hours' 

 ploughing by steam as shown above) divided by 21 acres, 

 is equal to Is. 7d. per acre, the cost of plough- 

 ing. Upon ground that has been ploughed some period before, 

 but whicli had been trodden and rammed down, I have drawn 

 12 ploughs at the same speed, with a pressure of 32 lbs. in the 

 G-horse power, and 35 lbs. in the 4-horse power. This makes 

 the ploughing much less than in the hard-ground example : it 

 makes it Is. 3d. per acre ; or the amount could be increased per 

 day of ploughing. The statement, therefore, of cost, at Is. 7d. 

 per acre, and 24 acres per day, may be considered a fair 

 average. 



It will be perceived that Mr. Halkett estiniates the 

 cost of coals at 20s. per ton ; but it is well known that 

 in many districts this estimate will be too high. In 

 Lincolnshire coal is obtained for engine-purposes at a 

 cost far, very far below this. It certainly cannot be 

 objected to Mr. Halkett's estimates that they are too 

 low ; he in fact scarcely gives his own invention fair- 

 play in this respect. 



The following is a statement of the cost of operation 

 per acre for a farm of 1,000 acres :— 



s. d. 



Ploughing 5 in. by 10 in.-furrows 17 



Deep cultivation to the depth of 25 inches . , . . 12 



Scarifying, grubbing, &c < . , . 8 



Harrowing, clod-crushing, rolling 5 



Hoemg (150 acres could be done per day) 3 



Drilling or dibbling seed 5 



Reaping (cntting and delivering) at 60 acres per day . 8 

 Underground watering crops, at the rate of 3,000 gal- 

 lons per acre, and 60 acres per day or night, or 

 double this quantity if done by night and day , , 10 



Surface-watering (with hoes following) 12 



Carriage of manures on to and distributed over land, 

 and of crops carried off, also carriage of marl, clay, 

 sand, &c., O^d. per ton per mile. 

 The amount that can be carted at a time, for either 

 water or manures, &c , 70 tons. 



With reference to the important point of carting-off 

 the produce of the farm, Mr, Mechi, who took the chair 

 at the meeting we have alluded to, spoke as follows : — 



" To-day I went to the Polytechnic Institution, and heard 

 Mr Pepper lecture on this very sulgect. There were two 

 trucks, each of which contained a ton-and-a-half of mangel- 

 wurzel ; and I saw two men move the three tons with perfect 

 ease ; and they would have had no trouble in passing from one 

 end of houdon to the other, provided the roads were level. 

 Now, 1 have had carted off many hundred tons of mangel- 

 wurzel within the last month, and I find that on a clay-farm, 

 late in October, two horses could only carry off at a rate 

 which would require twelve horses to carry off eight tons ; 

 aud the reason of that was nothing else than the difference in 

 friction." 



It is evident that this system of cultivation will work 

 under most advantageous circumstances, where large 

 tracts of lands can be obtained to operate upon. The 

 qucbtion of the cost of its adoption — as much, as Mr, 

 Mechi remarks, as the fee-simple of the land — is not the 

 one which is surrounded with difficulties. It is not 

 What does a thing cost ? but. What per-centage will it 

 pay ? that is the question, the importance of which no 

 one knows better than our manufacturers, who have cer- 



tainly done more in the way of putting down costly 

 mechanism than any other class. They stand alone in 

 this respect. The real difficulty in the way of a wide 

 extension of this system, is getting large farms to 

 operate upon — apart, of course, from all questions of me- 

 chanical and cultural fitness, Mr, C. W. Hoskyns, at 

 the meeting to which we have already so frequently al- 

 luded, pointedly drew attention to this. In stating that 

 Mr. Halkett would have great impediments to encounter 

 in carrying out his system, he remarked that one of 

 these would arise "from the difficulties which clog the 

 advance of any agricultural system on a gigantic scale, 

 where large tracts of land are necessary to be purchased. 

 The laws of settlement and entail offer great objections, 

 and also the enormous expense and delay in transferring 

 land. The first objection that occurred to me was the 

 difficulty that awaited him in getting farms on such a 

 scale as to be able to realize his mode of cultivation, sup- 

 posing he had mastered all mechanical and engineering 

 difficulties." 



Bat our lessening space reminds us that we must 

 draw our paper to a conclusion as rapidly as possible ; 

 we therefore hasten to offer an abstract of the advan- 

 tages obtained by this system of cultivation, as stated 

 by the inventor : 



1. The whole weight employed in culture being taken off 

 the land, the operations can be carried on in all weathers, and 

 in any condition of the soil. 



2. The land is left in a state of lightness not attainable 

 where more horses and implements press upon while it culti- 

 vating. 



3. Consecutive' ploughing in exactly the same lines being 

 easily obtainable, a greater depth of soil stirred than is usually 

 arrived at can be insured. 



4. The bringing up of fresh soil for intermixture with the 

 top-soil in any desired proportion. 



5. Facilities for carrying on manure, and depositing it on 

 the land, 



6. Facilities also for carting off produce. 



7. Also for carrying soil of different qualities to intermix 

 with the soil of the farm. 



8. Precision of operation [this we have already enlarged 

 upon]. 



9. Tlie operation can be carried on by night aud day. 



Whatever may be the opinions of some as to the 

 soundness of these presumed or stated advantages, it 

 certainly is the case that many are disposed to look 

 upon this system of Mr. Halkett's as a move in the right, 

 the philosophical direction. It is fast becoming an es- 

 tablished opinion amongst engineers and mechanicians, 

 that before the full advantage of the application of steam- 

 power to the purposes of cultivation can be obtained, 

 there must be an adaptation of the land to 

 the peculiar features of the new power to be employed. 

 If local or other peculiarities prevent the free and eco- 

 nomical action of the power of steam, those peculiarities 

 must be got rid of before full satisfaction can be ob- 

 tained. And in the long run it will be found a cheaper 

 method to get rid of, for once and all, those peculiarities 

 which prevent the free action of the machine, than to 

 adapt self-adjusting or other arrangements to the me- 

 chanism, by which it can be enabled to stop itself, till 

 the peculiarities which impede its free action are got out 

 of the way. Thus we can conceive of a plough bemg 

 dragged by the steady power of steam across a field, 

 and which has a self-adjusting mechanism given to it, 

 by which it either stops its own progress if coming in 

 contact with a boulder, or else is enabled to slide over 

 it without damage. But the philosophical, and in the long 

 run the cheapest, method of procedure, is to get rid of 

 the sti/ne altogether. Root it out : take it away : it 

 is only an obstacle, and an ever- recurring one if allowed 

 to remain. Our cotton manufacturers know the value 



