204 Rej)ort on Steam Cultivation. [Claekk. 



of this age, regularly and extensively employed, yet with frame- 

 work, axles, drums, shell of the boiler, &c., &c., apparently little 

 damaged, with many years' work still remaining before them, 

 and little prospect of their being " out of fashion " for a long 

 time to come. And we therefore consider ourselves warranted 

 in adopting (what must of necessity be an arbitrary figure) 5 per 

 cent, for "depreciation." But we do not calculate even this 

 reduced percentage upon the Avhole of the original purchase- 

 money. Wearing parts are bought with an engine, but they are 

 iVom time to time restored perfectly new again under the expense 

 of " repairs," renewal of rope, and so on ; so that there is abso- 

 lutely no depreciation whatever in their value. Mr. J. Chalmers 

 Morton (see ' Farmers' Calendar ') deducts the price of the rope, 

 which is kept good in perpetuity by occasional purchases of new 

 lengths, and then reckons " depreciation " upon the remaining 

 portion of the original outlay. This we consider to be the 

 right principle of procedure ; but, properly, it should be carried 

 further. We ought to divide the various members of the appa- 

 ratus into two classes ; (1) permanent parts, and (2) wearing and 

 consuming parts ; the first including the immoveable framework, 

 and all parts of the structure which are not subject to attrition or 

 consumption in the act of working : as the shell of the boiler, 

 framing, brackets, &c. ; while the second class comprises rope, 

 shares, coulters, porter-wheels, pulleys, brasses, bushes, pitch- 

 chains, toothed-wheels, cams, clutches, rubbing parts of the 

 engine, together with grate-bars and fire-box, <S:c. It is difficult 

 to say where to draw the line, because even boiler-plates corrode 

 in time, and are liable to great injury from noxious water ; but 

 we illustrate the distinction that it may more plainly be seen how 

 the item " repairs " does save from deterioration a very consider- 

 able proportion of the whole apparatus. And when the cost of 

 these continued renewals has entered into a calculation of ex- 

 penses, it is manifestly unfair to charge it over again by reckon- 

 ing the percentage of depreciation upon the constantly sound, 

 Ijecause repaired, parts as well as upon the unrepaired, and there- 

 fore gradually deteriorating parts. From the cost of the entire 

 apparatus, then, we deduct the cost of the rope, and an allowance 

 (arbitrary, of course, but purposely low, so as to be within the 

 bounds of extreme moderation) for the parts Avhich wear in work- 

 ing and are renewable under the head " repairs," and take 5 per 

 cent, upon the remainder as the annual rate of " depreciation." 



Of course the necessary 5 per cent, more for " interest " is 

 reckoned upon the whole of the purchase-money. 



This has been a rather long story ; but it has been necessar} 

 to enter somewhat fully into the question, seeing that the 

 expense of working machinery worth 500/. to 1500/. or more, and 



