r 



78 



THE ILLINOIS FARMER. 



hand from one of them for a considerable 

 distance, and how much further it would have 

 gone cannot be said. The expense of plough- 

 ing nine inches deep, with four ploughs, is 

 £1 16s. 6d., or about $7 50 per day. 



"The «um of 36s. 6d. per ten acres would 

 be something less than 3s. 8d. per acre; but 

 say £2 per day and 4s. per acre. 



"The value of the work done was esti- 

 mated at from 20s. to 24s. per acre; say 

 the lowest of these two figures, which would 

 give ^10 per day, so that deducting the £2 

 (the expense of the engine,) we would have 

 £8 as the profit per day over our present 

 system; £48 per week; or tha prime cost of 

 the engine in some ten weeks' work. 



"When the engine was timed it was 

 ploughing fully an acre an hour, but that 

 time it was going rather over its ordinary 

 pace. In point of fact, the boiler is only 

 calculated to keep up a maximum pressure 

 of 45 lbs. of steam per square inch, and with 

 the most successful stoking it seldom much 

 exceeded this pressure, while it very fre- 

 quently fell below it. Midland we found it 

 atone time ae high as 50 lbs., and at an- 

 other as low as 35 lbs. We may also men- 

 tion here, that we had the diameter of the 

 cylinder measured, and found it 6^ inches. 

 Probably at the ordinary pace of the engine 

 it was ploughing at the rate of §ight acres 

 per day of ten hours. We insisted very 

 hard, on Tuesday, for a ten hours' trial 

 without intermission; but owing to the ur- 

 gent demand of visitors, — some of them from 

 the continent of Europe, the East and West 

 Indies, and the United States of America, 

 — to see it trench-ploughing, etc., etc., our 

 request was found impracticable on any of 

 the days advertised for public trial. 



"At eight acres per day, the expense per 

 acre would be 5s., and the profit per day, £6; 

 per week, £36; over the present system — a 

 profit which would soon pay off the prime 

 cost of an engine. In the provinces the 

 expense of such ploughing would be, on an 

 average, only 16s.; at ten acres this would 

 yield £8, or £6 of daily profit; at eight 

 acres, £6 Ss., or £4 8s. of profit, allowing 

 the expense of the engine in each case to re- 

 main as before. 



"There was no two-horse or six-inches 

 deep furrow work done, and therefore we 

 cannot say from experience what the ex- 

 pense of such was; but we may safely con- 

 clude that, at ten acres per day, it would not 

 be more than 2s. 6d. per acre; and at eight 

 acres per day, 38 



"Such are the leading facts we gleaned 

 from two days spent with the Messrs. Mid- 



dleton. That they involve a revolution in 

 agriculture no one will deny who compre- 

 hends their importance. To those of our 

 readers who have hitherto been opposed to 

 Boy dell's steam-horse entering their fields, 

 the above results may appear startling, and 

 even incredible; but to such we say, go and 

 judge for yoursejves, and be guided by facts, 

 not opinions. We omselves hope very soon 

 to witness far more triumphant results in 

 favor of direct traction than the above, for. 

 several of our most intelligent and leading 

 agriculturists have traction-engines of an 

 improved construction, and with better im- 

 plements for tUlage, nearly ready to enter 

 than what were used on the above occasion." 



-<•»- 



'If tobacco must be used, it would be well 

 for those who can, to grow it. Yon will then 

 have the satisfaction of knowing that you are 

 asing a pare article. Who can tell what in- 

 gredients make ap the article sold as tobacco in 

 the shops? The seed should be sown early in 

 the spring in a warm and sheltered place — the 

 soatb side of timber woald be best. The groand 

 should be burnt over. A pipe bowl of seed 

 will be enough tor 16 feet square. The plants 

 sboald be transplanted in May. The groand 

 should be light, rich and loamy. The plants 

 should be ; kept clean. The tobacco worm 

 should be destroyed. The top of the flower 

 stalk 'shoald be taken off and the suckers re- 

 moved, to make large leaves. "When yellow 

 spots come on the leaves, the plants should be 

 cat, carried to the barn and hung up separately, 

 to dry. To do this in the best manner, the bars 

 shoald be heated by stores. Goonecticat tobac- 

 co cared thus is worth 40 cents per pound, while 

 Kentunky tobacco brings from 14 to 20 cents. 



<» 



'The heart cherries fail here. This is at- 

 tributed to many causes. Mr. James Fountain, 

 of Jefferson Valley, New York, says: "For 

 many years I lost all my cherries. I gave them 

 the richest soil I could gather. They grew 

 finely; bore some good crops, then split and 

 died." He tried again. Planted out trees in 

 loamy and gravelly matter — making poor groand. 

 The cherries are doing well, but grow slowly. 



If^Henry Shively, Esq., residing in Wood 

 county, Ohio, the last season, raised for his first 

 crop, 12 tons of clover, worth 0144, on five 

 acres of land. The second crop 19 bashels of 

 seed, worth at 05 75 per boshel, $109 25. So 

 that the land yielded him in hay and seed 050 05 



an acre 



