916 Transactions of the American Institute. 



finaDcial, that of performing the work at a cost not exceeding that 

 involved iu the ordinary methods of tillage; ana inasmuch as 

 Fowler's machinery has been the most widely known and the most 

 extensivel}' and satisfactorily employed, there is, as we have just 

 hinted, probably no better criterion by which we may judge of 

 the degree in which either of these results have been obtained; 

 and with reference to the first, that of the practical execution of 

 work, it cannot be denied that very great success has been secured, 

 inasmuch as land has been plowed and made arable by steam plow- 

 ing, which in many cases it would have been impossible to have 

 plowed to the same depth by horse-power. 



The greater depth of furrow secured by the steam apparatus has 

 contributed materially to the amelioration and increased fertility of 

 the land, not only by the deeper pulverization of the soil, but by 

 the increased facility given to the natural drainage of the same; 

 but when we come to consider the other object sought, the problem 

 assumes a darker shaVle, and there is strong reason, from a purely 

 business point of view, to doubt the practical availability of this 

 method of cultivation. In order to more fully undei"stand this 

 aspect of the case, it may be as well to consider in detail the cost 

 of a plow of this kind, capable of plowing about eight acres iu a 

 day of ten hours, in what appears to have been a stiff clay soil. 

 The whole apparatus, including its fourteen horse-power engine, 

 cultivator, anchors, porters, and eight hundred feet of rope, cost 

 one thousand pounds, or about five thousand dollars gold, and was 

 kept iu repair by a good engineer at an annual expense of five 

 hundred dollars gold. In order to work the machine there was 

 required an engineer, engine driver, plowman, two anchor men, 

 three boys, and a cart, man and horse for carrying water and coal. 

 "We thus find that to plow eight acres of ground of the character 

 indicated, necessitates the labor of six men, three boys and one 

 horse; to which must be added the cost of coal, oil and other inci- 

 dentals — about thirteen shillings sterling — which, at the rate of 

 wages paid, would be equivalent to, at the very least, the cost 

 of four men more; and further, there must be included in the esti- 

 mate a due proportion of the interest upon the original cost of the 

 machine, and of the annual expense for repairs. When we reflect 

 that a stout team and single plowman can plow from three-fourths 

 to an acre per da}', ev«n in a hard and compact soil, it will require 

 but slight arithmetical powers to estimate the comparative economy 

 of the old and new systems. More than this, when we bear in mind 



