to the Cultivation of the Land. 
225 
estimated as costing Ss. 6c/. in summer and 8^. Qd. in the time 
of winter keeping ; but the work is shallow, the injury by 
trampling and poaching very great, and woefully inferior to that 
required by this land, but which teams are utterly unable to 
perform at all. Three horses, costing 15.?. each per week, and a 
man and a boy lO.f. (in this county of low wages), amount to a 
sum of bbs. ; and the 4 acres ploughed in this time cost there- 
fore nearly 14*. per acre. Consider, moreover, that the depre- 
ciation in value of the horses on such land as this is a heavy 
matter, besides the interest of first cost, and the expense of harness, 
implements, &c., to be added. Some of the work done by the 
steam-plougli was 7 inches deep, bringing up 2 inches of the 
hard subsoil, and the draught of a furrow being 10 cwt. showed 
that six horses would be required in order to achieve such an 
operation. 
Yes, light land-managers ! a horse cannot drag 2 cwt. all day 
here as he could with you, because of the labour involved in the 
bad walking — an element tliat ought never to be lost sight of in 
calculating horse-power. Six horses would do little more than 
half an acre a day, say 4 acres per week ; and the cost then 
amounts to upwards of 25s. per acre, or considerably more, 
including depreciation, interest, and contingencies. 
No wonder then that Mr. Redman should make up his mind 
(as great numbers of farmers similarly placed will be found to 
do) to try steam-ploughing. Having purchased one of Mr. 
Fowler's sets of tackle, with a 10-horse power double cylinder 
engine, he has turned over 150 acres in about thirty-five days of 
actual work, or an average of nearly 4^^ acres per day : 11 acres 
of the heaviest work of all vvere completed in four days. The 
estimated expense, reckoning wear and tear, and interest at 20 
per cent., and two hundred days' work in the year, at 5 acres a 
day, and say one removal in a week — the fields being large — 
comes to about 9s. per acre average ; the heaviest work to about 
15s. per acre : from which it appears that the steam-plough has 
worked at about one-third to two-fifths less expense than the 
animal power. This cheapness of tillage, however, is a small 
consideration compared Avith the saving of time, the depth and 
excellence of the work, the keeping of fewer horses, (kc. 
In thirty-five days of working, including seven removals, 150 
acres have been steam-ploughed, averaging nearly 4^ acres a day. 
This may appear a smaller extent of work than might be expected, 
but then a large proportion of the ploughing was extremely heavy 
and laborious, and in one field 11 acres were turned over in four 
days, though the draught of a single furrow there (with a horse 
plough) is not less than half a ton. The expense of this tre- 
mendous work I have computed to be fully 25s. per acre by 
VOL. XX. Q 
