466 



On the Cost of Horse-power. 



It is ])]ain that the instances I have given must be taken 

 rather as illustrations of the mode of calculation to be adopted than 

 as conveying what is absolutely true of the two cases specified. 

 That there are many unavoidable liabilities to error in these cal- 

 culations 1 readily admit ; but that they give an approximation to 

 the truth will, I suppose, be generally admitted. If you can enu- 

 merate all the operations on your farm, together with the draught 

 incurred in accomplishing them, then you can easily convert the 

 whole into weight lifted through a certain space in a certain time. 

 If you can record the cost of horse food, of extras, of ploughmen, 

 and of keeping up live and dead stock, then against the work 

 done you can place the exact cost of doing it ; and the comparison 

 leads, as in the two cases worked out above, to the cost of horse- 

 power " per cwt. of draught, at a given rate of movement." 



It would be tedious to examine in detail the other instances 

 given in Table III. ; but I may add here, as the result of such 

 an examination, that I believe the following Table describes 

 pretty nearly the experience of those whose names are given : — 



♦ Mr. Laidlaw tells me he sometimes draws 700 or 800 loads of Severn mud 

 Ij miles in the course of the summer ; and tliis is here added to the work of the 

 farm, and does of course increase the performance of his horses. 



These figures, let me repeat, are necessarily mere approxima- 

 tions to the truth. They are given, of course, without regard to 

 any personal bearings they may have, simply as the results to 

 which calculation, on the data furnished to me, has led. No doubt 

 exception may be taken to many of them ; they may, however, be 

 safely taken, both as illustrating the way in which the cost of 

 horse-power must be calculated, and also as showing that very 

 considerable differences do exist in the expense of horse labour 

 as it is managed on different farms. 



I conclude with a reference to the competition of steam- 

 power with that of draught animals in the work of cultivation. 

 Whether under the most economical and productive management 



