392 Five Years Progress of Steam Cultivation. 
too liigli. And further, as the sure effect of improvements in 
mechanical detail and in carrying the rope will be to increase the 
acreage of the daily performance, the cost per acre in the future 
will be still lower than even this reduction of 2s. would make it. 
These tabular statistics will be more instructive as they are, 
than if resolved into some crude generalization of sums and 
quantities. Taking each synopsis by itself, the reader can com- 
pare the horse-power of engine with its acreage of ploughing and 
grubbing, and this, again, with the character of the soil and 
depth of work. He can see at a glance what great differences in 
daily expenditure arise from varying prices of labour and of 
fuel ; and what a changeful item " repairs and rope " become under 
different circumstances and management. And he will not fail 
to note the wide range of "interest and depreciation" per day 
and per acre, as governed by the greater or less number of days' 
work in the year. 
In comparing one table with another, that is, instituting a 
comparison between the performances of different inventions, it 
must be observed that ]\Ir. Fowler's machine is the only one 
entering into the account as performing turnover ploughing. 
^Messrs. Howard's' apparatus can "plough" as well as "culti- 
vate," but of its achievements in the open furrow I have gleaned 
no regular series of particulars beyond those which appear in the 
notice of Worcester trials. Of course had Mr. Fowler's work 
been all grubbing, as in the tables of IMessrs. Howard's and 
Mr. Smith's performances, (instead of about three-fifths being 
the much more tedious operation of " ploughing "), his average 
daily acreage would have exceeded, not fallen short, of theirs. 
An average of many cases during this last spring, down to May 
18th, furnished by ^Ir. ]Morton to the Central Farmers' Club, 
makes Messrs. Howard's grubbing 5^ acres per day, Mr. Smith's 
grubbing acres per day, and ^Ir. Fowler's work, of which 
only about one-sixth was ploughing, 1\ acres per day. But the 
endless diversity of soils, the varying depths worked, and the 
fact that, either from the form of an implement or its speed of 
travelling, the tillage accomplished by one machine may be 
worth double that done by another machine, forbid our taking 
these tabular epitomes of experience as competitive results esta- 
blishing the relative powers and expenses of rival sets of appa- 
ratus. Data from which to frame conclusions of this order are 
given in the details of the Worcester and other trial grounds. 
From averages extending over wide areas, and influenced by 
exceedingly variable circumstances, let us turn to particular 
examples of maxima of daily performance, in which manufac- 
t;:vers' feats in die public arena are more nearly realized by the 
farmer in ordinary business. 
