ACTUAL IMPROVEMENTS IX ENGLISH AGRICULTURE. 153 



a pair of horses, on a farm, is estimated at ,100 per year, (very 

 much more, indeed, than it would be with us;) and intelligent 

 farmers assert &quot; that, with steam power, they save one fourth of 

 the horse power on large farms.&quot; 



The usual quantity of grain threshed by a six horse steam 

 power is at the rate of from thirty to forty bushels per hour ; 

 though the quantity must vary with the condition of the grain 

 and the straw. The average work of a threshing mill, driven by 

 horse power, is 150 bushels per day, and by steam power may 

 be reckoned at 250 bushels per day, which is certainly a great 

 preponderance in favor of the steam power. The wear and de 

 terioration of the horses, and the expenses of keeping them, are 

 most important considerations to a farmer. Indeed, so far as my 

 observation goes, there is no single source of expense, none 

 which abstracts so much from the profits of farming, and none 

 of which the farmers in general are so little aware, as that of 

 horse teams. 



In the great experiment, or rather improvement, going on at 

 Hatfield Chase, in Yorkshire, of emptying the deserted bed of a 

 river, and spreading this rich alluvion over a peat bog, the earth 

 carts are moved on a temporary railway by a steam engine, and 

 carried to their place of deposit, so that, as I have before re 

 marked, five acres can be covered in a day, eight inches deep ; 

 and that which it would be perfectly in vain for any inferior 

 power to have attempted, is accomplished with perfect ease by 

 this willing but mighty agent. The fens in Lincolnshire, where 

 the uncertain and capricious power of the wind was formerly 

 depended on, and, of course, with little confidence and uncertain 

 results, are now relieved, at pleasure, of their surplus water, by 

 two steam engines, one of sixty and one of eighty horse power ; 

 and the quantity of water removed, the time required, and the 

 expense incurred for doing it, are all matters of exact calculation. 

 The workmanship of these engines for I have had the pleasure 

 of visiting the spot is extremely beautiful ; and the advantages 

 of the whole arrangement can hardly be overstated. I can easily 

 Relieve that the same machinery, on a small scale, may be applied 

 m many other similar cases ; and a very intelligent and spirited 

 farmer consulted me on the subject of his determination to erect 

 a small steam engine, at his own expense, for the purpose of 

 draining a part of his own premises. At the show at Derby, 



