382 Five Years Progress of Steam Cultivation. 
12-liorse engine scarified tlie same soil 7 inches deep, at the rate 
of 6^ acres in ten hours, at a total cost of 7s. 2c?. per acre. In 
land where the ploughing of a single fun'ow 8 inches deep re- 
quired a draught equivalent to the power of 5 horses, the same 
engine ploughed at that depth at the rate of 5.f acres in ten 
hours, for a total cost of Is. lOJ. per acre. Of course in reading 
these figures (as well as those of the Worcester Judges' Report) 
it should be borne in mind that, though ordinary wages are 
charged for the labour, the trained hands of exhibitors are masters 
of a larger daily acreage than could be expected from common 
farm workmen. 
From the lessons of the trial field I now turn to the encourage- 
ments furnished in 
Farm Practice. 
It may be possible to find more than one farmer who, having 
purchased steam-cultivating apparatus when its mechanical 
merits were less developed than at present, found only dis- 
appointment from the inefficiency of the machine or the scanti- 
ness of its valuable results. But we have now such a body of 
satisfactory evidence from large and small occupiers, upon every 
description of soil, and in all parts of the kingdom, that the 
difficulty is how to select examples of success that shall be 
more striking than others. I might give detailed descriptions 
of scores of farms under the tillage of Mr. Fowler's, Messrs. 
Howard's, Mr. Smith's, or some other machinery ; but as the 
agricultural press has lately teemed with reports of steam farms, 
annals of steam culture, lectures, and discussions on the same 
great achievements of rural mechanism, perhaps I cannot do 
better than cull and condense the main facts that have as yet 
been made known, with the opinions of those who have had most 
practical experience in the matter. From the Agricultural Ga- 
zette, the Mark Lane Express, Bell's Wechhf Messenger, th^ hun- 
dreds of good testimonials received by different inventors and 
manufacturers, and from what has been gathered by personal 
acquaintance with many cases of steam-farming, I will select 
some of the most prominent testimony to the value of the steam- 
plough. I disclaim, however, any attempt at " making out a 
case," or puffing steam cultivation by extravagant statements ; 
much less am I conscious of being influenced by any bias for or 
against one form of apparatus more than another. My tabulated 
cases are merely such as chanced to yield the particulars re- 
quired ; and are probably average specimens of their class, instead 
of being picked and unusual examples. 
Take, first, a synopsis of performances and expenditure with 
the machinery of our three principal inventors and manufacturers. 
