Clakke.] Report on Steam Cultivation. 201 



between tlie two, and assume the total average expense of a farm- 

 horse to be 44/, a year. 



The cost of ox-labour is a matter of still greater diversity of 

 opinion. Mr. Cowie, in his Essay ' On the Comparative Advan- 

 tages of Horses and Oxen for Farm-vv'ork ' (Journal, vol. v.), 

 estimates it at 17/. \0s. per year, — taking turnips at IO5. per ton ; 

 however, he omits, on the one side of the account, the wages of 

 the team-men, and, on the other, the yearly improvement (instead 

 of deterioration) in tlie value of the animal. Mr. Ellman 

 (quoted in Morton's 'Young's Farmers' Calendar,' 1862) cal- 

 culates the keep of a team-bullock to be half that of a farm-horse. 

 To be within the bounds of extreme moderation, we have charged 

 15/. as the total yearly cost of a working ox. 



"Interest upon capital invested," we put up at the usual figure 

 of 5 per cent. 



The complicated and difficult items of "wear and tear," and 

 " depreciation in value " of the machinery, we have ventured to 

 treat in a somewhat new method. In the Society's Reports of 

 Steam-Plough ' Trials,' the Judges were obliged to assume some 

 arbitrary percentage upon first outlay before they could frame 

 any comparative estimates of the cost of work done. Thus, in 

 the earliest experimental trial at Boxted Lodge, in 1856, the 

 steam-plough was debited with 15 per cent, for "interest and 

 wear and tear," distributed over 1000 acres, "to be ploughed 

 annually on a farm of 600 acres." At Salisbury, in 1857, no 

 official calculation ^vas attempted. The Chester Judges, in 1858, 

 charged both Ricketts' rotary digger and Fowler's plough with 

 " interest 5 per cent., and wear and tear 15 per cent., on first 

 cost, taking 200 as the number of working days per year," and 

 dividing the yearly sum into so much per day : while they 

 charged Howard's cultivator Avith 5 per cent, interest, and wear 

 and tear 20 per cent. : a distinction not warranted by after 

 experience, this same tackle being now at work in Huntingdon- 

 shire, and having cost very little in repairs. At Warwick, in 1850, 

 no estimates of expense were made. In the Canterbury trials of 1860, 

 the Judges took the interest at 5 per cent., and wear and tear in all 

 cases at 15 per cent., on cost price of apparatus, dividing the 

 amount over 200 working days in a year. At Leeds, in 1861, 

 interest was reckoned at 5 per cent., and wear and tear, in Fowler's 

 case, at 12^ per cent., and for Howard's and for Kirby's apparatus 

 15 per cent, on the purchase-money, divided among 200 working 

 days. The next calculations were made at Worcester in 1863, 

 the interest being taken at 5 per cent,, and wear and tear at 12^ 

 per cent, in all cases ; and apportioned upon 200 days in a year. 

 And in the last trial at Newcastle in 1864, the Judges followed 

 the same figures. Now, what will be the averag-e cost of a 



