252 Report on Steam Cultivation. [Clakke. 



and the expense of oil was about 4/, os. The smiths' bills 

 came to 4/. 2s., and the Leeds invoices for points, wheels, &c., 

 amounted to 11. The wear of rope Mr. Watts has found to 

 average about 25 per cent, per annum upon its prime cost, 84Z. ; 

 say for half a year, 10/. \0s. Interest and depreciation are wholly 

 chargeable upon the steam tillage, because, having a small port- 

 able engine for thrashing, &c., the 14-horse engine is seldom, if 

 ever, set to anything but its legitimate employment. On 945/., 

 a charge of 5 per cent, interest per annum for half a year is 

 23/, 12a\ 6f/. Depreciation, at the same rate, upon say 800/. 

 (a portion of the apparatus) is 20/. And summing up all these 

 items of expenditure, we have a total of 125/., being at the rate 

 of 2/. 5s. 66^. per day ; or 387 acres were steam-cultivated at a 

 cost of 65. Qd. per acre. With the addition of water-carting in 

 the contract-work, and a slight increase in the item of repairs, 

 which in a course of years have been at double the rate due 

 upon that particular half-year, the extreme cost would probably 

 be a few pence above 7^. per acre ; and this is for deeply and 

 thoroughly breaking up, at an average of 7 acres a day, land on 

 which four horses are needed to plough three roods a day 5 inches 

 deep. This is an extraordinary, but soundly-made, estimate of 

 results, — steam-power at Is., against horse-power at \Qs. per 

 acre. 



Mr. Watts having latterly kept no statistics of the acreage or 

 the number of days' work in each year, we cannot say what his 

 annual expenses and performances actually are ; but, taking the 

 above half-year's statement to represent (which Mr. Watts thinks 

 it does) about half the work of a year, the annual totals will be 

 between 700 and 800 acres tilled at an expense of about 300/. 

 A considerable proportion of this work (but the precise quantity 

 not given) is done at a profit, for a certain price agreed upon ; 

 and that the remainder, executed upon Mr. Watts' own farm, is 

 more than paid for by his saving of horse-flesh, is very evident 

 from the following estimate. The farm having been enlarged at 

 the time when steam culture was adopted, the number of horses 

 formerly kept will not serve for comparison : the proportion of 

 horses due to the present extent of arable, according to the usual 

 practice of the district, is 20 or 22 ; and, allowing for certain 

 estate- work done for the squire, the present force is 13 or 14 

 horses. Seven or eight horses saved, at 44/. a year each (the 

 figure adopted throughout this Report), more than cover the 

 whole sum yearly expended in steam cultivation ; and then, by a 

 considerable share of the work thus paid for, Mr. Watts earns a 

 good price per acre from his neighbours. 



The effects upon the farm may be thus epitomized : — Broad 

 lands — common to the district, but not thrown up very high — 



