330 
Steam Cultivation. 
To compare this with the cost of horse-ploughing we must go 
back to our statement of the amount which four horses are able 
to get over per day, which we find to be three-quarters of an acre 
at a depth of 9 to 10 inches. But this amount cannot be main- 
tained as an average ; so that if we assume that an acre costs 
20s., we certainly shall not be open to the charge of overstating. 
Although our steam cultivation was all deep work, yet as a 
portion of it was stirring in the spring the land which had been 
previously ploughed in the autumn, and might be classed as three- 
horse work, we believe we put it very fairly when we assume 
that the average cost of the whole with horses might have been 
over, but most certainly would not have been under, 17s. per acre. 
This statement shows a difference in favour of steam of 4s. 6t/. 
per acre, effecting a saving of 112Z. on the 500 acres cultivated ; 
and allowing, as we believe we have done, a fair interest on 
capital invested, with the actual cost of material, repairs, and 
labour, we really and truly believe this to be the bond fide result. 
At all events, we give the facts on which our conclusions are 
based, so that indifferent persons may readily determine whether 
they are fairly drawn. 
Percolation of Water, 
The question " Has a more rapid escape of surface-water 
been observed on strong soils ? " as put to the competitors 
for this prize, is one of the first importance to cultivators of 
impervious soils, who are exposed to much loss Avhen water 
stagnates or escapes by surface-overflow. Such influences are 
highly prejudicial to the crop, not only when the plant is de- 
stroyed, but when the temperature of the soil is so lowered as 
to retard vegetation. They also frustrate Nature's beneficent 
attempt to restore to the soil by filtration the ammonia contained 
in rain-water, and, by sealing the pores, they lock up the mineral 
treasures with which clay soils are so richly stored, which, , by 
the free access of air, with other atmospheric influences, would 
be rendered soluble and available for the food of plants. 
The effect produced by the cultivation of clay soils with 
horses is in great measure the very opposite of this aim, the 
necessary conditions either not having been fulfilled, or else 
rendered inoperative ; in fact, if the design was to render the 
subsoil as impervious as possible, what better plan could be 
devised than to pound it well, when in a soft, waxy condition, 
with the feet of four or five horses traversing in a continuous 
line every space of 8 or 10 inches in width? Indeed, the 
uninitiated stranger might fancy that the pounding process was 
the main object to be accomplished, and the skimming off of 
the puny furrow only an accident or means to such an end. 
