Report of Society's Meetings. 413 



especially when the soil caked. The depth was less and there was 

 difficulty in the steering and therefore the furrows were not of the same 

 width. 



If the land is very wet it is no use to talk of ploughing, as the locomo- 

 tives sink into the ground and cannot be moved, only going deeper and 

 deeper instead of moving forward. In such cases we have to do away 

 with the Steam Plough to a great extent or work it when the ground is 

 hard. And then again by using horses we have to put up with the spoil- 

 ing of the ground by their trampling. 



The rails are 82 centimetres broad, which the locomotive leaves < 

 embedded in the soil behind by its weight (.15,000 kilo.) 



If the ground is very hard and has not yet been worked, then the 

 ploughing is very difficult, not because the plough doesn't go deep 

 enough, but because it does not run even but goes deeper in one 

 place than in another and rebounds from hard places without entering. 

 In the autumn the Steam Plough can do good service, and the 

 advantages we have from it above cultivation by horses is that it goes 

 quicker and therefore we can work the whole day. If the harvest is not 

 too late then we see its use, otherwise horses are quite capable of doing 

 the work. Fowler has, however, lately brought the implement to such 

 a state of perfeftion that it is more successful than horse-ploughing. 

 There are also many new models which deviate very much from that we 

 have, which is the first, and therefore of the oldest construftion. 



On the fallow in the summer, which has already been worked by 

 horses and where we wish to plough deeper, then the Steam Plough is 

 best. 



If we desire but little more from the Plough than to break up rough 

 land, even if we get large clods, and where there is no bottom (which 

 in the rainy seasons is very bad, and allows the implement to sink) the 

 Steam Plough is put on dry ground and will then produce the desired 

 effeft when it would be almost impossible with horses. 



In California ploughing by steam in the wheat distrift is carried on 

 with great success, first, because the fields are so large that enough 

 horses cannot be obtained, and second, because the ground is hard and 

 dry, there being no rain from May to Oftober. 



We give a few figures of the twenty years working, by which it is 

 shewn that the Steam Plough has been working about 67 days per year, 

 the average being about 58 hectares per year and about 2.7 per day. 

 By these figures the cost is different from that already given, being 



3G 



