■Clarke.] Report on Steam Cultivation. 211 



year; thus making the charge 125. 8c?. per clay. The whole ex- 

 penditure, then, is as follows : — 



Per Day. Per Acre. 



s. d. s. d. 



Working expenses 29 8 .... 5 lOi- 



Rope 3 4 .... 8 



15 per cent, for repairs, wear and tear,) ^^ ^ 

 depreciation, and interest .. .. j 



2 7 



Total ,. 45 6 9 U 



Of course, the larger acreage per day done with the 5-tined 

 cultivator would cost something like two-thirds, or say Gs. per 

 acre. This does not look like very cheap work, if we compare 

 it with the price at which horses can cultivate ; but that the 

 steam work is really worth far more than horse work would have 

 been may be very easily perceived. In the first place, it has 

 enabled Mr. Sowerby to sell off (j out of his former force of 24 

 horses, and moreover, to bestow less "keeping" upon the re- 

 maining 18 — which are found amply sufficient to get up his 

 harvest well with the big old-fashioned pair-horse Avaggons of 

 the country. Six horses, at our standard estimate of 44/. each, 

 for maintenance and working, save 264/. a year : the annual 

 outlay for steam cultivation is about (78 days X 2/. 5^. 6d.) 

 177/. 9^. ; leaving a gain of 86/. lis. plus the saving in main- 

 tenance of the remaining 18 horses. But the great thing is that 

 there has been a decided increase in the yield of cropping, since 

 the steam-cultivator started. The drainage, too, is improved ; 

 and the root-crops are eaten off with somewhat more advantage. 



As one altogether exceptional circumstance, we may mention 

 that from the mere cleansing of one field, Mr. Sowerby considers 

 that he gained as much as 150/. in a single year. This 40- acre 

 piece was foul ; had it been ploughed it must have become one 

 mat of twitch ; whereas, treated by the steam-engine, it gave a 

 better crop than it had ever before produced. 



Mr. Sowerby 's husbandry is nearly 4-course, sometimes with 

 2 years seeds ; but beans not grown. In autumn he breaks up 

 with the steam-cultivator 150 acres of stubble, and crosses in 

 the spring for green crops. The 18 horses manage the manure- 

 carting, by getting out the dung in early winter, to be laid on 

 the land for roots at sowing-time. Besides the 300 acres of 

 steam-fallow grubbing, 40 to 60 acres of seed-lea are broken 

 up in July by steam for wheat ; Mr. Sowerby finding that he 

 thus gets a good crop without weak straw. The great point in 

 steam tillage, he says, is doing the work when dry, and he has 

 no horses on the land from Christmas to March. 



He expresses himself very well satisfied with the apparatus, and 

 he is one of those managers who take care of their machinery ; his 



p2 



