632 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 10 



ing on the road, and I g^enerally put on 20 loads per acre 

 at a dressing, it would amount to 20 loads or 1 acre 

 per day, at only two miles per hour, average time for 

 one team; therefore say — team per day, 5s. ; one man 

 to drive and tip, 2s. 6d. ; by horses per day or acre, 7s. 

 6d. Now my steam-engine, if not very hilly ground, 

 would go at four miles per hour, or 4!) loads per day, 

 which at the same per day for man, boy, and ior fuel, 

 comes to 93. 6d., the half of which is, per acre 4s. 9d. 

 I shall not notice the filling of carts or spreading 

 the manure, as in either case, whether of steam or 

 horses, the expenses are the same. My locomotive 

 engine would take the carts, &c. loaded with produce 

 to market, at four miles or more per hour; and I think 

 it might be so modified by further improvements as to 

 be made subservient to many of the farmer's wants. 

 It might perhaps be made available for the cutting of 

 roots and fodder for stall-fed and other cattle ; for the 

 thrashing, winnowing, grinding corn, and pumping 

 water. See. In case of the last ploughing, when it is 

 intended to sow and harrow in the seed at one going, 

 the same power would etfect the whole work, only re- 

 quiring the aid of the boy, who must otherwise be en- 

 gaged in driving the harrow horses, but which, horse 

 labor and horse injury done to the soil would be done 

 away with, and a further saving per acre effected by 

 my steamer. The additional boy at the steam-harrow 

 would be required to lilt up the harrow occasionally, 

 and take up the weeds, and put them in a basket hung 

 to the machine, until arrived at the headland, where a 

 spare cart might be placed to receive them, and which 

 the engine would take out of the field every evening, 

 or as many times per day as was necessary, A-s to 

 the quantity and quality of work which such a steam- 

 engine would do when compared with animal power; 

 I shall assume a regular breadth for the furrow slice of 

 eight inches, and from four to nine inches deep, ac- 

 cording to the tenacity and stony qualities of the soil. 

 At the above breadth, but at less depth, a horse-plough 

 would make as many bouts per acre as would amount 

 to twelve and a half miles, exclusive of ridgin^s and 

 balks. My steamer would go twice as fast, and being 

 Diore easily managed ^rid controlled than horses, woulil 

 not be so liable to get out of line, and would, I think, 

 do the work better, besides not having the fatigue of 

 walking. I shall state what such a steamer would do 

 upon a farm of 200 acres of arable land, premising that 

 it would cultivate a much greater farm where desirable, 

 and leaving the intelligent farmer to calculate the pur- 

 chase and maintenance of the necessary horses, har- 

 ness, plough-gearing, ploughs, harrows, &c. 



Ploughing 200 acres per an- 

 num once over, at 3s. 7d. per acre, £35 16 8 



" 150 do., and harrow- 

 ing again 2d time, do. " 26 17 6 



" 150 do., and harrow- 

 ing and seeding a- 

 gain 3d time do. " 26 17 6 



« 50 do., fallow 3d 



time, do. " 8 19 2 



" 60 do., hauling ma- 

 nure 4s. 9d. " 14 5 



" 60 days do. to mar- 

 ket 6s. lOd. 20 10 



" 30 do. harvesting 



(long days) 10s. 15 



" 90 half days, equal 

 to 45 days cutting 

 fodder, &,c. 4s. 8d. 10 10 



£158 15 10 



"I must premise that my preceding calculations 

 both of horse and steam tillage, do not contain the 

 usual incidental expenses of filling carts and spreading 

 manure, inter-furrowing and water-furrowing, drain- 

 ing, weeding, hoeing, &,c. . none of which has been 

 incorporated with the ploughing, harrowing, and haul- 



ing. Again, my scale of horse expenses is drawn 

 from my own plan of keep, which proved so rational 

 and beneficial to both cattle and owner, that I shall 

 never adopt any other system, which was this : — I 

 knocked down all the racks in my stable, but left the 

 mangers; I cut clean sweet wheat and barley straw, 

 with equal weights of best sweet hay ; to this I added 

 three-fourths peck of bean and oatmeal per horse per 

 diem, which was well mixed up, and mcstened with 

 water out of a gardening can with a rose-head. I put 

 a small handful of salt for each horse into the mixture, 

 and when I could get carrots to chop up small, I add- 

 ed them; and deducted half the bean meal. As soon 

 as the hors.es came in from work, a very small quanti- 

 ty was spread' thin in tile manger, and when this was 

 eat up qvAie clean, another lot was put in, so thai there 

 was no waste— [heir bellies were soon filled, and they 

 had time to lie down and rest. No man's horses work- 

 ed harder, and no man's teams were in better condi- 

 tion; they were occasionally turned out to grass in the 

 meadows on Sundays and during warm nights This 

 cost me 20d. per dav each, the year round, and on this 

 plan I found my calculations of horse-keep. I thir.ic 

 200 acres, all arable land, would require 10 horses for 

 tillage, with four men and two boys per annum, if the 

 land is to be well worked and kept going, besides 

 other hands for occasional works. 



Therefore 10 horses kept at 

 20d. per day each, is per 

 annum, £303 



Ditto wear and tear of har- 

 ness and shoeing, per an- 

 num, 45 16 



6 8 



£349 3 4 

 Four good men and two boys, 



as before, 218 8 



-£567 11 4 



Now, by my steamer, the ex- 

 pense of tilling 200 acres 

 would be, as before stated, £158 15 10 



To which may be added, one 

 additional man and a boy, 

 all the year round, at the 

 same wages as before. 



And one pair of oxen, for^ 

 furrowin'g, ridging, and 

 earthing-up, and sundry 

 other purposes, at 20s. per 

 week the pair. 



Saving in the tillage of 200 

 acres of arable land, per 

 annum. 



57 



52 9 



268 10 



£299 10 



Say purchase of 10 horses for 200 acres arable 



land, at £25 each, £250 



Do. lor harness, plough-gearing, and for ploughs, 

 ■ harrows, &,c. 100 



£350 



Purchase of one of my locomotive steam 

 ploughs, with two shares, £350 



£350 



" As the quantity of land in cultivation, whether by 

 the plough or in grass, much diversity of opinion ex- 

 ists. One author makes his statement (or England to 

 be only 11,525,000 acres which I think is enormously 

 below the truth ; another, more than double the quan- 

 tity in aration alone ! But, during the past week, at a 

 meeting in Bath, for a most excellent purpose (God 

 knmvs too long delayed,) that of allotting small portions 

 of land to laborers, for spade cultivation, it was there 



