412 TiMEHRI. 



and drawn by the metal cable. These waggons hold 4,000 to 6,000 

 (kilos) K.G. and one of the Locomotives can draw a load of at least 

 20,000 kilos ; they are already largely in use for the transport of 

 coals, &c Also, one of the Locomotives can be used to drive the 

 thrashing machine. Finally, we have with the Steam Plough no fear 

 of sickness or death among the horses. 



Taking into consideration all the advantages of the Steam Plough over 

 horses, we have in the Wilhelmina Polder followed the example of the 

 English in deciding to buy a steam apparatus instead of sixteen horses, 

 to do work which could not be properly done by the latter. 



Of the different systems Cthe Round about and two machine) which 

 we have in Steam-ploughing, we have taken the " Double System" of 

 John Fowler of Leeds by preference, and although it is the most 

 expensive at the outset it is cheapest in the end. 



First, it is best because there are no cable carriers, pulleys nor 

 chains required, and therefore it gives very little trouble, and 



Second, the very easy way of removing it from one field to another, 

 which is done quickly without help, as the steam engine draws along 

 everything, through which we can work more land per day than by any 

 other system. 



2. Our experience in the Polder for twenty years (1874-1894) under 

 the operation of Steam-Ploughing considered with regard to the 

 expelled benefits on which the introduftion was based. 



At the beginning it was intended to use the Steam apparatus or 

 Steam Plough, and in the first year (at the beginning of 1873) it 

 arrived on the Polder from England A start was at once made so as 

 to do away with horses, and with the disappearance of the mud the 

 apparatus went farther down to the subsoil so that the nine-toothed 

 extirpator and the turning cultivator could be used, these being almost 

 exclusively used in later years and the plough but seldom, we therefore 

 can say little of that implement. 



The time when the plough was to be used was the autumn to turn 

 over the winter furrow. If the land was heavy, which was to be 

 txpefled in the autumii. csp-cially in the climate we have here, it was 

 imposssible to go to the usual depth of 25 centimetres, with six ploughs, 

 as they were too heavy for the engines, and therefore two were removed 

 and we worked with four. 



The number of hectares per day was therefore reduced and beyond 

 this the working was not so satisfaQory and was worse than by horses, 



