418 Five Years Progress of Steam Cultivation. 
vate. Mr. Gascoigne, of Sittlngbourne, and others miglit be 
mentioned as hirers of engines to drive their cultivating tackle. 
Some private individuals do a great deal of work for neigh- 
bours ; several companies also have tried to make a profit by 
travelling a steam-plough about for contract vt^ork. I have not 
space to discuss their proceedings and results ; but the plan was 
not recommended by any marked success until the system of two 
engines amazingly shortened the time lost between one job and 
another, and dispensed with horses for shifting. Mr. Charles 
Clay's Company, at Wakefield, with one of Mr. Fowler's double- 
engine " sets," expended in wages, repairs, and all costs, 204/., 
and realised 310Z. for work done in the spring of the present year. 
The autumn will doubtless yield still larger earnings ; and as 
farmers generally select their most stubborn pieces for the steam- 
plough, to be worked deeper than ever before, the average price 
of the work is taken at IO5. per acre. The capital of the Com- 
pany, in IZ. shares, is now raised to 3000Z. 
To meet the exigencies of small or already burdened occupiers, 
the expected "Steam Cultivation Company" will be a great 
boon — supplying them with apparatus to be paid for by instal- 
ments extending over several years. 
On larger holdings, where a considerable number of draught- 
animals are displaced, the outlay of 500/. to 900/. on a single piece 
of machinery is, after all, no very onerous matter for the farmer ; 
no such appalling proposal as the doubling of his rent for a year. 
Glancing through my tables of Annual Saving, I see a 500-acre 
farm where 10 horses were sold off, say for 300/. ; a 410-acre 
farm where 2 horses and 13 oxen were sold for 300/. ; a 540- 
acre farm where 10 horses were sold for, say 300/. ; a 600-acre 
farm where 12 horses were sold for, say 360/. ; another 600-acre 
farm where 10 horses and 14 oxen were sold for, say 500/. ; a 
760-acre farm where 10 horses and 16 oxen were sold for, say 
540/. ; a 780-acrefarm where 4 horses and 30 oxen were sold for, 
say 570/. ; another farm where 10 horses and 24 oxen were sold 
at, say 660/. ; and another farm where the steam plough banished 
56 oxen at, say 840/. In several of these cases, the cash at once 
realised for live stock disposed of, amounted to the whole purchase 
money for an engine and tackle ; and in the rest, went a long way 
towards making up the sum rc(juired. 
I find that my paper, lengthy as it may seem, has left un- 
touched several important branches of its subject. The amount 
of motive power xchicli is best for varied cases should be well consi- 
dered. Mr. Smith, of VVoolston, and many other steam farmers find 
a profit from working common single-cylinder 8-horse thrashing 
engines, at 45 to 50 lbs. pressure ; and even a 7-horse engine (at 
