326 
Steam Cultivation. 
value of time, that it is generally found that direct pecuniary 
interest may well be brought to bear on their minds, as tending 
much to their enlightenment. By giving a small sum per acre 
in addition to their fixed wages, a healthy stimulus is created ; 
the men feel that they are associated in the undertaking, and the 
receipt of their extra earnings on a Saturday night demonstrates 
that the small as well as the great shareholder has a pecuniary 
interest in the welldoing of the enterprise ; in short, they feel that 
they are working for themselves, and when that is the case, it 
requires no necromancy to foretell the result. But the owner 
also must do his part ; he must anticipate breakages and have in 
reserve duplicates of all the parts where there is the least proba- 
bility of failure. A good stock of the parts where wear and tear 
is great, should always be in hand, such as grubber-points, plough- 
shares, skyfes, porter-wheels, rope-joints, &c. 
In our case, although the soil generally is free from stones, the 
wear of shares per acre is out of all proportion to that which 
is usual in horse-ploughing ; whilst in soils where stones are 
abundant the expense entailed by breakages, together with the 
time lost in the repairs, will, with the present form of the tackle, 
be so great that, in the AVTiter's opinion, it is questionable whether 
on such soils steam can be economically employed. 
With horse-cultivation the traction power being comparatively 
weak, the pace slow, and the implement light, an obstruction 
which arrests the plough's progres"S causes a rebound, but seldom 
effects much further damage ; but Avith steam the circumstances 
are very different — the speed Is greater, the implement heavier, 
and instead of a shock being spread equally over all the ploughs 
or tines, one generally bears the brunt for the whole, so that in a 
case of collision, while the implement is travelling at its ordinary 
speed, a fracture of some part or other usually takes place. A 
break to arrest the motion of the implement when it meets with 
an obstruction has already been in practical working ; but though 
in some instances this might possibly obviate further disaster, 
there is little probability of its preventing that which results im- 
mediately from the collision, and, where stones or other obstruc- 
tions to the cultivator's progress exist, it is impossible to effect 
a perfect cure. We know of only one infallible remedy, that 
is, " out with them." 
The number of shares supplied for the ploughing of the afore- 
said 502 acres were 14 dozen, or at the rate of about one share to 
every three acres. They cost ll.<j. per dozen, consequently the 
cost of shares per acre was nearly Ad. The breakage and wear 
of shares were most excessive when stubbles were cultivated in 
the eod of August and beginning of September, the clay-soil at 
