422 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



we see other and more eerious obstacles in the way of the use of etcam 

 jdoughing. The Hrst one is in the L-iws of descent, which divides and sub- 

 divides estates, and has a constant tendency to crumble down accumulation of 

 capital that might otiierwise become permanently invested in expensive and 

 enduring lixtures and machinery. Under this law farms, as a general thing, 

 will be small, aud to a great extent worked by the owner and his sons. A farm 

 of the size that would require three teams could, in a few years, be deep tilled 

 at intervals of comparative leisure, scarcely feeling the cost. The only extra 

 jutlay would be for a deep tiller plough, and a subsoil lifting plough, costing 

 /or both thirty dollars, ($30) which, if well made, would answer for a farm of 

 two hundred acres, at least twenty years for the purpose named, or at a cost of 

 a cent and a half an acre. The real cost in the case for deep tillage would not 

 be over three dollars an acre, and its repetition once in ten years would be 

 ample. A farm of two hundred acres would not, therefore, invest in a steam 

 plough costing 83,500 — the lowest estimate for such an implement. The interest 

 ou this, at six per cent., would be 82 10 — a sum sufficient of itself to pay the 

 deep tillage of thirty-live acres a year, at the rate of six dollars an acre, or 

 seventy, at the figure intimated above. 



We will now consider the small fanner, who keeps but one team, and works 

 sixty acres. Three of them can unite their teams, and thus, in a few years, 

 deep till the three farms in turn. We do not believe that, with the present 

 cost of animals and of sutsistence, any farmer will find it profitable to employ 

 steam for even deep tillage. The cost of the machine, the expense of an en- 

 gineer, of fuel, of water, of repairs, (the last being enhanced by the distance 

 from the foundry,) and the throwing out of work the hands thus employed • 

 during the time of delay, make almost if not iustirmouutable bars to the profit- 

 able employment of the steam plough. It might be argued that parties accus- 

 tomed to this kind of work Avould find it profitable to do job ploughing by the 

 acre. But here, again, Ave are met with the diificulty of the shortness of time 

 that they could find employment, as the laud for a portion of the year is not 

 in a condition to plough, and at others is covered with crops. We might put 

 down a hundred days that such a machine might find work, which, at five acres 

 a day, Avould amount to five hundred acres a year, which, at six dollars an 

 acre, woulJ. ..e three thousand dollars. But as this is the highest cost per acre 

 to do the work with animal power, it is not likely that jobs would be let at that 

 rate, and from four to five dollars would be nearer the true figure. At four 

 dollars the gross earnings would be only two thousand dollars — a sum that 

 would leave a small profit over the interest, wear and tear of the machine, the 

 cost of the fuel, of water, aud of labor. 



Take any view we choose of ploughing by steam, its bright side soon van- 

 ishes when we apply figures and facts to it. That steam can be a})plied to 

 ploughing has beeu demonstrated, but of its economy there are many grave 

 doubts ; even in England we have not seen any figures that show a tlattering 

 r(j,sult. One plan we have seen proposed is to use a traction engine that is 

 capable of running the ploughs ou level ground ; but in steep grades, to go 

 ahead, cast anchor, and draw up the ploughs by a windlass. We have said 

 sufficient on this head to show that this plan, which parties propose to put in 

 operation, will prove futile. The laud in the basin of southern Illinois approx- 

 imates more nearly to that of England, and as the surfixce is more level, will 

 be found the best adapted for the experiment of steam ploughing. 



THE ROTARY SPADER. 



Last autumn we gave one of these (Comstock's) a partial trial, though so 

 late in the season that we could form no definite opinion of its value, but were 

 highly impressed in its favor. Where used, the crop was much better than on 



