THfi FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



513 



the general application of steam-power to agricultural 

 purposes, and though he was considered at the time to be 

 taking a rather aerial flight, his predictions had since been 

 fulfilled. He thought he could not better illustrate the 

 subject before them than quoting a small portion from 

 the paper he had the pleasure of reading before them 

 four jears ago that very night, on the same subject, and 

 with the permission of the Chairman he would do so : — 

 " Lastly, I shall place before you a statistical account 

 of the immense benefit the nation at large would derive 

 from the practical accomplishment of this herculean 

 task. Several years ago Mr. Couling, in his survey, 

 estimated the number of cultivated acres in Great Britain 

 at 46,522,970, and the number of uncultivated acres at 

 15,000,000. Now, we all know that an immense number 

 of acres has been broken up since — probably a million ; 

 but I will content myself with adding to Mr. Couling's 

 estimate of cultivated acres less than half a million, viz., 

 477,030, which will make 47,000,000, assuming that 

 that number is under cultivation at the present time. 

 I must here add, that Mr. Coulinc: is a high authority 

 in this matter, having been quoted by Sir Archibald 

 Alison in his ' History of Europe' — by JMr. Porter, 

 and others. The next conclusion that I wish to arrive 

 at is the number of horses necessary to cultivate 100 

 acres. For my own part, I have ever been of opinion 

 that it would require four. I have asked scores of prac- 

 tical men, and they all agree with me as to the number 

 required. But we have now something more than mere 

 opinions — we have the statistical returns made by 1,100 

 tenant-farmers of Scotland, and by a large majority of 

 the farmers of the counties of Norfolk and Hampshire ; 

 and although these returns cannot be considered per- 

 fect, yet for this purpose they are sufficient, seeing that 

 as far as the returns extend, the number of horses men- 

 tioned represent the exact number kept to cultivate the 

 number of acres returned. The Highland Society of 

 Scotland have made a return from 1,100 tenant-farmers 

 of the number of acres they occupy, and the number of 

 horses they keep. The return gives, to 3,431,485 acres 

 of cultivated land, 156,595 horses employed. This is 

 2,182 over 4^ for every 100 acres ; and as the Scotch 

 acre is larger than our own, the result is not far from 

 what I have stated. The county of Hants has returned 

 603,219 cultivated acres, and 24,076 horses kept thereon, 

 being 52 less than 4 to every 100 acres — also corro- 

 bbrating my opinion. The county of Norfolk returns 

 621,833 cultivated acres, and 30,334 horses to work 

 them, being 5,462 over and above the number before 

 alluded to. 'J here can be no doubt, then, that if I fix 

 the horse-power necessary to cultivate the land of Great 

 Britain at 4 to every 100 acres, I cannot be far wrong ; 

 and, taking the number of cultivated acres before stated 

 at 47,000,000, and multiplying them by 4 to every 100, 

 I arrive at the enormous quantity of 1,880,000 horses 

 kept for the purpose of tilling the soil ! If I multiply 

 the number by 30, the probable average value of each 

 horse, it will give the astounding sum of £'66,400,000 ! 

 Now, as to the annual cost to maintain this number of 

 horses. They cannot, in my opinion, taking the prices 

 of the past year, be kept for a less sum than £30 each, 



to which must be added £5 per horse for casualties 

 (depreciation), wear and tear, shoeing, and harness. 

 There are various opinions as to the cost of maintaining 

 ahorse for a twelvemonth, but in ninety-nine cases out 

 of a hundred it is all assumed. By not reckoning 

 strictly everything horses consume, people are led to 

 suppose that they can be keptfor a less sum than I have 

 named ; but where a regular account is kept the case is 

 different. Reckoning, therefore, the maintenance of 

 each horse at £30, the annual amount is the same as 

 the cost price before mentioned, viz., £56,400,000 1 

 It now remains to consider what portion of this horse- 

 power could be dispensed with, provided steam could he 

 applied as a substitute ? If the bulk of the soil could 

 be tilled by steam, I am inclined to think half the horses 

 might be spared bj stacking the corn in harvest where 

 it grew, as I mentioned at the commencement of my 

 remarks ; but, as I wish to keep within bounds, I will 

 only take a third, which would amount to the number 

 of 626,666 and a fraction, and then the annual cost of 

 maintaining them would be £18,800,000, which would 

 be saved, not only to the farmer, but to the kingdom at 

 large, inasmuch as the food previously consumed might 

 and would be turned to a better account. I have been 

 often asked, ' If you do away with your horses, what 

 will you do for manure ?' The question might as well 

 be put, ' What will you do with the food the horses 

 would consumed' As this is the last and most interesting 

 part of this question, let me state, though I shall proba- 

 bly astonish some of my hearers in doing so, the amount 

 of animal food which could be produced with the farm 

 produce thus saved. It will be seen, from the above cal- 

 culation, that by dispensing with one-third of the horse- 

 power necessary to cultivate the soil, a saving in corn 

 and fodder would be effected to the amount of 

 £18,800,000. Now, if I take the price of beef and mutton 

 at 7d. per lb., or 4s. 8d. per stone of 8 lbs., the food 

 so rescued from consumption by the horses would pro- 

 duce, assuming that they would not be fed at a loss, 

 80,571,500 stones of meat; or 805,715 oxen, of 100 

 stones each ; or 8,057,150 fat sheep of 10 stones each." 

 He rejoiced that the subject had now been taken up by 

 many practical farmers, and that so great were the im. 

 provements which had been effected in machinery, that it 

 was in the power of any farmer of ordinary intelligence to 

 use the agency of steam with advantage. It was no longer 

 a question whether or not steam could be applied to the 

 cultivation of the soil ; it was so applied, and any man who 

 walked over land where the steam-cultivator had been 

 used, however prejudiced he might have been previously, 

 could not but admit that he never saw work performed 

 so well by means of horse-power. If by the use of 

 steam they could avoid the enormous cost of horses — an 

 expense which he thought was rather underrated than 

 exaggerated by Mr. Mechi— the farmer must be pro- 

 portionately benefited ; and while he was benefited, the 

 nation v - n'.l V f' so, in the production of an increased 

 quantity of loud. As regarded the economy of horse- 

 power, it geemed to have been overlooked that there were 

 52 Sundays in the year, and that on those days the 

 horses consumed without yielding any return. He 

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