222 
Application of Steam Poiccr 
managers, who prophesied a beautiful irrigation of his Avheat 
after a smart rain-fall. Horse-ploughinj; 6 inches deep is done 
with four horses ; and the " custom of the country " allows the 
outgoing tenant only IO5. for the operation, whereas the four 
horses at, say, Is. 6d. each, man 2s. 6c?., and boy 8c?. per day, 
make an expense of 13s. to 15.?. an acre. When the work is 
heavy, or at a depth of 7 or 8 inches, and only 3 roods a day 
can be done, the cost amounts to 17a-. or 205. per acre ; and 
deep plougliing is specially demanded on this over -marled 
land, in order to bring up the somewhat lighter stratum lying 
beneath. 
Mr. Bird has turned over a considerable extent of land with the 
steam-plough, some as much as 8 inches in depth ; the principal 
part of the work averaging 6 to 7 inches. In 15 days about 70 
acres were ploughed, and six removals made, averaging about half 
a day each, as some of the fields were a long way distant from 
each other. This is equivalent to about 6 acres for a full 
day's work, that is from 7 to 5 o'clock, with half an hour's stop- 
page for breakfast and an hour for dinner. In a 10-hours' day 
of course a larger amount of work would be accomplished. To 
have accomplished the 70 acres in 15 days would have required 
20 to 24 horses, working 5 or 6 ploughs. But the force of 
teams kept upon the farm would have been perhaps 10 days 
longer in doing the same extent of work, and the wheat seeding 
has not only been forwarded thus much, but has been still fur- 
ther accelerated by the horses getting on with harrowing and 
drilling while the steam-plough is at work simultaneously, instead 
of having to wait for their own slow ploughing. And the 
setting-in of a week's frost has still more strongly enforced the 
advantage of this expedition. The steam-ploughing has been 
well done ; tlie slices are well turned, and so shaken by the rapid 
motion of the implement, and loose from the absence of trampling, 
that less reduction of tlie surface by harrows is found necessary, 
and the ground is in a better condition for the seed to strike in. 
The fields are hilly and by no means rectangular, yet tlie engine 
on one headland and anchorage on the other travel without ob- 
stacle or difficulty, the rope being led out or taken up to suit 
the fluctuating length of the furrow, which varies from 400 to 
200 yards and less. In one field the plough, turning three heavy 
furrows (though four furrows at a time on all but the strongest 
land), descended into and mounted out of a partially-filled marl- 
pit 20 feet deep, tlic sides sloping with a " batter" of 1 in 2, 
and in some places an angle of 45°. 
What have been the items of expense for these 15 days' 
work ? 
