266 Repoi t on Steam Cultivation. [Claeke. 



prime cost of the engine, as chargeable to the thrashing account, 

 before we reckon the 5 per cent, of interest that is to be set on 

 steam cultivation. On 497/., then, the interest will be 24Z, 17.9. 

 a year. Depreciation, at 5 per cent, upon the cost price, minus 

 the rope and other wearing parts, say upon 400/., will be 20/. 

 a -year. Here, then, we have an apparatus maintained at an 

 expenditure of 70/. a year ; not for two or three years only, but 

 for more than nine years, and so maintained that it is still in 

 good working order, and not at all likely to be broken down or 

 out of fashion at the end of nine years more. Throughout this 

 time the machine has accomplished all the heavy tillage required 

 of it by Mr. Randell's system of farming upon 430 acres arable. 

 Had the farm been of double this size, of course the wear and 

 tear would have been correspondingly greater. Then, either the 

 interest and depreciation must have been augmented, or else the 

 tillage operations must have been backward, and the results in 

 cropping and produce inferior. To be equally forward with the 

 same grubbings and ploughings upon an 800-acre instead of a 

 400-acre farm, two fields in the former case must be finished in 

 the same time as one in the latter ; involving the use of a more 

 powerful set of tackle, and proportionately swelling the outlay 

 of percentage on the purchase-money. We mention this very 

 obvious circumstance to prevent inconsiderate persons from con- 

 cluding that, because Mr. Randell's 70/. a year finds him a com- 

 petent piece of machinery for all he wants of it on a 430-acre 

 farm, therefore a precisely similar tackle, with the same figure of 

 investment, will do as much for them. It will, provided their 

 farms are of like magnitude and character to that of Chadbury, 

 and managed as thoroughly on the same system. The questions. 

 What should be the form of apparatus, and what its capability 

 of performance per day, for a farm of any given area? — must 

 be answered, not by reference to one successful example, but by 

 a comparison between many good cases on different-sized occu- 

 pations, — such as are furnished to the reader in this Report. 



The pecuniary part of Mr. Randell's experience is not yet 

 fully presented. Let us see what are his expenses per acre, at 

 the rate of 4 acres per day of cultivating the first time over, and 

 6 acres per day of crossing : for on this strong land, and with 

 this apparatus, and the engine worked at only 60 lbs. pressure, 

 the performance is not found to be more. It takes one hour to 

 get up steam ; a removal occupies two hours, with 4 horses and 

 the steam -hands, and occasionally some delays by breakage. 

 These vary much in the amount of time wasted ; in very hard 

 work, and when the rope is a good deal worn, the rope some- 

 times breaks two or three times a day, losing half an hour each 

 time for " splice." A removal, about every fourth day, may be 



