288 Heport on Steam Cultivation. [Ci.AEKE. 



and above these outgoings he maintains the steam-horse for 45/. 

 a year — just about what an extra real live horse would cost him. 

 So that the second-hand steam-plough, while performing eacli 

 operation with cheapness as compared with animal labour, 

 involves no ruinous or even burdensome sinking of capital, Mr. 

 Savidge admitted to us that the steam tillage certainly costs less 

 than animal tillage did. 



As to direct gain from the use of this economical apparatus, 

 one item is very clear and convincing, Mr. Savidge now works 

 i' horses upon his farm, which consists of 380 acres of arable, 

 and 180 acres of pasture ; but before the engine came he ploughed 

 with a gang of 12 oxen, or rather of 16 (with the spare bullocks), 

 in addition to the 9 horses. All the former expenses connected 

 with these 16 bullocks he now keeps in his pocket (or rather the 

 money is available for something else) ; that is, at 15/. per ox 

 (for which assumed cost of maintenance, see our Introduction), 

 there is a saving of 240/., to be placed on the credit side of the 

 steam account. On the debtor side stands the whole yearly cost 

 of the steam tillage. Well, if the proportion of cultivating done 

 be about three times that of the ploughing (as we think it is, 

 though the exact figures have not been ascertained), the average 

 cost per acre, including everything, cannot exceed 10^. ; and 

 upon 200 acres tilled in a year, the total outlay for steam-work 

 on this farm will not be more than 100/. The balance is 140/. : 

 or, in other words, Mr. Savidge's annual expenditure for the item 

 of tillage-work must be something like Is. i^d. an acre less over 

 his entire farm (arable) than it was before the steam-machinery 

 was substituted for oxen. We would remind readers here, that 

 these calculations are not Mr. Savidge's, but ours ; but we are 

 confident that, though wanting in the correctness which only- 

 exactitude of every detail could give, the main results are borne 

 out by the statements with which he kindly favoured us. Now, 

 the saving of a few shillings per acre over a whole farm may not 

 appear of any profound importance — though in many cases it 

 just makes all the difference between getting "a comfortable 

 crust with something laid by on the hob," and the miserable 

 existence of barely " making both ends meet." However, a posi- 

 tive lessening, instead of an increasing of the former outgoings, 

 is a grand point in an example of steam cultivation ; farmers 

 being too commonly so restricted in their command of capital 

 that they are infinitely more ready to try a new system sure to 

 curtail their old rate of disbursements, than one involving an 

 additional investment with good hope of a profit. Mr. Savidge's 

 case is so far encouraging ; but a more momentous inquiry has 

 to be made, whether he has not "bought his whistle too dear" — 

 whether he does not lose by inferior produce or a heavier labour 



