to Ike Cultivation oj' the Lund. 
223 
Labour — 3 men and 2 boys, coal, oil, aud water-carting, £. s. d. 
about 22 10 0 
Extra for removals (only 2 horses being required, owing 
to the engine being loconiotive) 0 18 0 
Wear and tear, and interest, say 20 per cent. — 
On engine .. .. £420 "j 
On apparatus . . 420 I charged on 200 days in \ , , , „ 
f the year | i- -li 6 
840 
£35 19 3 
The working expeiiS2S on the 70 acres are thus .. Gs. Sd. per acre 
The wear and tear, interest, &c. 3 7 ,, 
Total, about 10s. Srf. per acre. 
The cost by liorse-labour would have been one-third to one- 
half more, besides the work, in that case, being so far behind- 
hand, and so much less efficiently performed. I should add 
here, that several davs' delay occurred at first, by the fracture of 
one of the spur-wheels on the windlass, the engine (of 12-horse 
power, but working up to 25 or 30) being too powerful for the 
machinery ; and also with a stoppage arising from a new and 
untried attachment of the hooks to the ends of the ropes. Mr. 
Bird's steam-ploughing apparatus is almost independent of horses 
for shifting from field to field, the engine being one of Mr. 
Smith's (of Coven) locomotives. This travels from field to field, 
or from one farm to another, with only a single horse to steer 
the engine ; even this, however, is unnecessary, as the engine 
may be steered by hand, but a horse being required to lead out 
the rope, &c., in the field, he is put into a pair of shafts on his 
way there. One horse is also employed to take the balance 
plough, while the windlass and the anchorage are both joked 
behind the engine. To shift a portable engine with the whole 
machinery would require ten horses if going a considerable dis- 
tance ; four horses, if merely from one field to an adjacent one, 
in which case the team can make several journeys in a half-day. 
If we take five horses as the average number required, the cost 
of the six removals would have been, say, A3s. instead of ISa'., 
that is, the expenses of ploughing would have been more by Ad. 
per acre, and in the case of travelling a few miles the cost would 
be Sd. or Is. an acre more with a common portable than with 
a locomotive engine. Of course we must deduct somethinsr for 
the cheaper prime cost of the simple portable, but the saving 
of a small price per acre is of less importance than the advan- 
tage of being able to take the apparatus to its work without 
hindering the team from the sowing or other urgent operations 
they may be engaged about. 
