Steam Culture. 
411 
But the chief cause of the difference between the estimate 18s. 
and 15.S-. is worthy of notice. 
The Cliester Report provides for a trained engineer at 5*. per 
day ; practically an intelligent farm-labourer at 3s. is employed, 
and, on the whole, with good reason, though probably the saving 
in wages may be attended with some increased cost for repairs, 
arising from imperfect management. 
The extra cost of 2.?. ])er day does not nearly represent the cost 
of retaining an engineer. We have seen that for cultivation the 
engine will not be generally required more than 90 or 100 days 
in a year ; if GO or 70 days of work done for other purposes be 
added to these, the aggregate will still be under 200 days, and 
for 100 working-days more the engineer will be a dead weight. 
On 200 working-days, then, an engineer v/ill cost 2s. extra, or 
20/., and on the remaining 100 days, even if he makes himself 
useful, and earns Is. Grf., the difference between that sum and 5s. 
will come to 17/. 10s., making the total extra cost for a trained 
engineer 37/. 10s., or, supposing he can help in harvest, 35/. at 
least. 
When we come to the item of repairs of engine, this conside- 
ration will again come before us. These, it may be, from less 
skilful management and rougher work, will have to be set at 20/. 
a year (or about 5 per cent, on 380/., the price of a 10-horse 
engine) above the allowance usually made for machinery, and 
yet such an arrangement may be the most economical that the 
circumstances of the case admit of, for we see that the extra cost 
of an engineer would amount to nearly double that sum, or 10 per 
cent, on the engine. 
For coals the theoretic estimate of Is. per cwt. on half a ton is 
the safest, for the average cost of delivery on the spot must not 
be overlooked. 
Farmers will do well to consider the difference in the power of 
different qualities of coal to generate heat — -their evaporative 
power. 
Thus, according to Stephens* (1964), Newcastle caking-coaL 
takes lbs., nearly, to raise a cubic foot of water into steam. 
Staffordshire takes more than 11 lbs. Different Welsh coals 
stand to one another in the extreme relation of nearly 6 to 10 in 
respect of their heating powers. Mr. Stephens wisely suggests 
that our agricultural societies should institute experiments " as 
to the evaporative powers and best method of management of 
the various qualities of coal used in our agricultural districts." 
It may be asked, in connexion with this item of the water- 
cart, how much water will generally be required in a day? The 
* Stephens's ' Book of Farm Implements.' 
VOL. xxr. 2 F 
