438 On the Cost of llorse-yower. 



meeting of the Society for methods of using the latter in field 

 cultivation, which are alleged to be an economical substitute 

 for the horse-drawn plough. I use the word " alleged " instead 

 of " proved," not to dispute what seems to me the unquestionable 

 justice of the award, but to suggest the need of some further 

 explanation of it. The cost of the competing steam-power on 

 the occasion of the trial was fully analysed and specified. It 

 was stated in the official report, under the heads — Engineer, 

 Plough and Anchor Men, Boys, Water-cart, Coals, Oil, and 

 Interest on Capital ; while that of the competing horse-power 

 was merely estimated. It was " estimated " that the light land 

 could not have been so well ploughed by horses under 8s. an 

 acre, nor the heavy land under 12s. 6«/. It would have been 

 more satisfactory had this estimate been justified by a detailed 

 analysis instead of being merely declared ; for it is not too 

 much to say that while under one man's management the cost 

 of horse culture might have been as much as lOs. an acre, under 

 another it would not have been 7s. 6c?. Steam cultivation will, no 

 doubt, ultimately be adopted, altogether irrespectively of narrow 

 differences of cost per acre : it will lead to deeper and more 

 thorough tillage, to greater economy of time, to greater promp- 

 titude, activity, and skill in labourers ; and these are sufficient 

 security for its adoption and extension, whether it cost a shilling 

 more or a shilling less per acre than the present ordinary system 

 of farm management. But it is plain that a decision of the 

 narrow question of immediate cheapness cannot be made by 

 comparison of actual cost on one side with mere " estimate " 

 upon the other. Professor John Wilson, one of the judges to 

 whom the Chester award is due, has indeed since declared as 

 much in a lecture on this subject to students of agriculture in 

 the Edinburgh University. He has stated, what is obviously 

 true, that no decisive comparison is possible until we have ascer- 

 tained the actual cost of each per cwt. of draught at a given rate 

 of movement. 



The object of the present paper is to give the materials of such 

 a calculation, as they are furnished by the experience of some of 

 the best farmers in the country. Certainly, at present, the 

 statement of the agriculturist on the one side of the subject is 

 most indefinite and vague when compared with that of the 

 <'ngineer upon the other. The latter gives the result of his 

 observations and his calculations to the third place of deci- 

 mals ;* the former is too often content with an unsupported 

 declaration of opinion. The farmer, no doubt, has to deal with 

 more inconstant and indefinite particulars than the mechanic j 



* See vol. xvi. pp. 509, 510. 



