246 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



more.) Add to this the gain which accrued from til- 

 lage operations avoided and saved— that is, 2s. 6d. an 

 acre on half the farm, or £50, and 28s. an acre on a 

 fifth of the farm, or £'224. This £274, added to tlie 

 above j£'200, makes altogether a direct pecuniary profit 

 of £474 in the course of the verj' first year of steam 

 ploughing, or surplus remaining after the whole of the 

 machin^'y has been paid for. 



Extraordinary as this may be, the second and subse- 

 quent years will show a larger gain still. There is 

 neither the steam plough to be bought, nor any money 

 to be realized by sale of displaced horses and oxen ; 

 but the estimate must be made in this way : At the 

 end of the year the machinery is worth £200 more 

 than the teams would liave been ; the saving in tillage 

 opiMations has been £274, as before ; and the differ- 

 ence between the working expenditure of the steam 

 plough and the horses, tkc, is £200 (as any one may 

 compute, at the prices for horses, &c., given above) in 

 favour of the steam. Thus we get no less than £674 

 as the direct profit per annum which will arise during 

 the second and every following year, the entire machi- 

 nery being supposed to be maintained in repair and 

 efficiency at tlie cost already stated. This is a long 

 way short of the £1,500. But we have not done 

 yet with the advantages of this wonderful machine. The 

 £674 arises only from the yearly economy of perform- 

 ance; we have still to take into account the superior 

 value of the deeper and more pulverulent tillage. We 

 said before that the supposed increase of 8 bushels of 

 wheat per acre uptui half the farm is not at all a high 

 equivalent for all the increased yields, improved weight 

 and quality, even crops, &c., of all varieties of grain, 

 roots, and clovers, and for the increased production of 

 beef, mutton, and pork, from the larger supplies of food 

 thus gi'own. And the large ausmentation of produce 

 infallibly arising from the transformation of a shiillow 

 clay staple into a deep mould by means of tillage pro- 

 cesses is now too well known and demonstrated in num- 

 berless examples to need any argument or proof from 

 lis on the present occasion. Taking the 8 bushels of 

 wheat at 40s. upon 400 acres, v.'je have £800 worth of 

 cropping as the additional yield of the 800 acres arable 

 in consequence of steam culture. Adding this, then, 

 to the £674 previously calculated, there comes out the 

 sum of £1,474 as the improvement in the future in- 

 come from Mr. Langston's farm. 



The moral of the story is evident enough. The steam 

 plough is a ready means for helping the farmer in this 

 time of low corn markets, and a sure instrument for 

 permanently raising the value of land. Let landlords 

 see to it. 



We have had an opportunity of consulting the 

 books of Mr. James Arnot, of Woudcote, near Carshal- 

 ton, Surrey, containing minute particulars of his 

 working expenses with Mr. Fowler's plough. As the 

 land is principally light, ploughed ordinarily 5 or 6 in. 

 deep, with a pair of horses, aud therefore resembling 

 a vast proportion of the soil in the kingdom, on which 

 steam- ploughing may be expected to show its capabi- 

 lities, some very valuable data are here afforded for 

 the information of inquiring managers. 



From the week ending October 15th to the week 

 ending December lOtli, 1859, there were 39 days' 

 labour, &c., paid for ; the engineer at 3s. a-day, two men 

 at 2s. 6d. a-day each ; two boys at Is. 2d. a-day each • 

 and the water-carting, with one horse and a boy, at 

 4s. a-day. The removals from field to field were 

 accomplislicd by four horses, and in some cases with 

 six horses, for a few hours at each time, the machine 

 not having been fitted with the self-propelling gear. 

 The repairs we allow for are only those of wearing parts, 

 together with the sharpening ofconltcra, not includ- 



ing accidental and other breakage, which will be 

 reckoned under the general head of wear-and tear, or 

 maintaining the efficiency of the apparatus. The land 

 being much of it close upon the chalk rock, a great many 

 uew plough-shares were required. Oil and grease are 

 charged at the price paid for them ; and the coals 

 consumed cost 17s. 3 J. to 17s. 6d. and 18s. per ton. 

 The totals of the payments made during the six weeks 

 are — for labour and water-carting, £26 15s. 9d. ; 

 repairs, £2 8s. 6d. ; six shiftings, £1 10s. ; oil and 

 grease, £3 Is. 6d. ; coals. 20 tons, £17 6s. 7id,— The 

 whole amounting to £50 18s. 4id. The number of 

 acres ploughed was 175, of which 55 acres were at 10 

 to 12 in. iu depth, and the I'emainder at 4 to 6 in. in 

 depth. The general average cost was 5s. lOd. per 

 acre. We shall not go into the question about which 

 such varying opinions exist ; that is, the cost of wear- 

 and-tear, to be added to the working expenses ; be- 

 cause Mr. Fowler himself is willing to keep the engine- 

 rope and entire machinery in good working order, by 

 contract ; and he offers to maintain the efficiency of 

 the machine for seven years, at an annual charge of 

 £120, more or less, according to the power and prime 

 cost. This sets all dispute at rest ; so that we have 

 only to divide the amount over the acreage ploughed 

 yearly, in order to find the total outlay per acre. INow, 

 the average daily rate ofwork wasaboutS acies a-day ; 

 andsupposiug there to be 30 weeks or 1 80 days' work in a 

 year, on Mr. Arnott's and neighbouring farms, this 

 will be about 900 acres of ploughing, at 2s. 8d. per 

 acre for wear-and-tear, or 8s. 6d. per acre for the 

 total expense. If the number of acres ploughed in a 

 year is confined to only 450 acres, the wear-and-tear 

 would be 5s. 4d., and the total cost of ploughing lis. 

 2d. per acre. We suppose that by horse-power the 

 common ploughing might be valued at 8s., and the 

 deep at 16s. per acre, making an average price for the 

 175 acres, of 10s. 6d. per acre. So that the steam- 

 ploughing, at 8s. 6d. (or according to the other supposi- 

 tion, lis. 2d. an acre) does not show any particular 

 saving in outlay, as compared with ploughing by 

 horse-power; though, it must be remembered, this was 

 during short winter days. Summer would show a more 

 favourable result. That the advantages to the farmer 

 are very great notwithstanding, and in a variety of 

 ways, no one will be more ready to acknowledge and 

 demonstrate than we are ; and, indeed, we have cer- 

 tainly done our part on many occasions in urging those 

 vast benefits upon the business farmer, who seeks larger 

 and securer crops, a more eeonomical system of clean- 

 ing his land, and a deeper and more thorough tillage. 

 So, let no one think we are exposing the short-comings 

 of steam-cultivation, when we show that on some light 

 lands the gain is not so much in saving of outlay per 

 acre in any single operation, but arises rather from 

 other considerations which we have not time to dwell 

 upon just now. 



We may get a good deal that is worth knowing out 

 of these figures of Mr. Arnot's steam ploughing. Let 

 us look at the variable nature of the work and differing 

 cost per acre, in different fields. No. 1, 26 acres, was 

 ploughed at the rate of abimt 5^ acres a-day. The 

 coals, llf cwt., came to 9s. 4d. ; the labour and water- 

 carting at 13s. 8d.; the average of six shiftings, at 

 9d. ; the repairs at, say. Is. 3d. ; the oil and grease at 

 Is. 6d. — make altogether 17s. 4d. per day. This, 

 added to the cost of fuel burnt, amounts to a total of 

 26s. 8d. a-day, which is 5s. 2d. per acre for working 

 expenses. No. 2, 14 acres, was ploughed at the rate 

 of 7 acres a-day, with 14 cwt. of r ^''Is. These, at 

 12s. 3d., added to the labour, &c., 17.o, 4d., came to 

 29s. 7d. per day ; or about 4s. 3d. per acre. No. 3, 

 4i acres, was ploughed nt tlio rate of about 5 acres 



