On the Cost of Horse-power. 437 



General Remarks. 

 The more care and attention the engine receives the longer it 

 will work without extensive repairs. Very frequently great 

 damage is done, and heavy expense incurred, through the care- 

 lessness and ignorance of the person who acts as engine-man ; no 

 person should be sent out to work these engines who has not had 

 previous experience with high-pressure engines of some kind. 

 Wood should never be used as a fuel when the engine is at work, 

 on account of the great quantity of ignited pieces blown out of the 

 top of the tunnel by the steam-blfist ; the foolish and dangerous 

 practice of carrying hot coals in shovels from the farm-house to 

 the engine in the stack-yard for tlie purpose of lighting the fire 

 should never be allowed. All tools and spanners m.ust always be 

 kept in the tool-box with the engine ready for use, and everything 

 should be kept clean and in its place. 



Small Repairs, 



The parts that will require repairing most frequently are the 

 brasses of the connecting-rod and crank-shaft ; the guide-bars 

 also occasionally require adjusting ; but all these things should be 

 done by an engineer who is accustomed to the work ; and the file 

 and chisel must never be used by the engine-man, or more harm 

 than jTood will be done. 



XIX. — On the Cost of Horse-poioer. By J. C. Mortox. 



The management of farm horses, including the cost of various 

 methods of feeding them, has already been discussed in the 

 pages of this Journal. In the 5th and 9th volumes especially 

 the subject occupied a prominent place — Mr. Burke and Mr. 

 Spooner, both of them excellent authorities, there stating the 

 results of their experience and intelligence. A good deal of 

 information has also been given incidentally in the county 

 reports which have appeared from time to time in the later 

 volumes of the series. 



That the subject has not, however, been exhausted is plain 

 from the frequent and continued discussion of it at the meetings 

 of local farmers' clubs, and from the attempts of writers in every 

 new systematic work on agriculture to throw some additional 

 light upon it. The cost of hoi'se-power is, moreover, a subject 

 of particular interest just now when steam-power, in its various 

 agricultural uses, is being declared the cheaper of the two ; 

 and it is worth while in the first place to consider their re- 

 lative positions. Prizes have been awarded at the recent annual 



