Economical Management of Materials, §-c., on the Farm. 359 
Value of good Stoking, what it ensures in economical and safe 
Steam-engine driving or working. — When a celebrated practical 
engineer, on being asked a round of questions as to what con- 
stituted good engine-driving, gave to them all the same answer, 
"good stoking," he was not far wrong — from many points 
of view al)solutely correct. And although in some senses 
paradoxical, like all sayings of the class, it conveyed a fairly 
correct answer to them all. Assuredly, good stoking ensures 
economical consumption of fuel, the maximum of steam pro- 
duced at the minimum of cost. It ensures the regular steady 
supply of steam sufficient for the requirements of the steam- 
engine. It ensures the engine being worked at the speed best 
calculated for the work to be done, never " racing" or running 
away through an excess of steam, or making every stroke with 
difficulty through lack of it. It therefore places within command 
the means of working the engine at a steady uniform rate ; this 
tends to keep the various parts in better repair, and that for a 
longer time than would be the case with irregular or over- 
driving. Good stoking may therefore be said to be something 
more than what it is popularly conceived to be. It is at all 
times worth aiming at, especially at times like the present, 
when it offers, should it offer nothing else, a saving of fuel. 
How it can be carried out in practice I shall endeavour in the 
next few paragraphs to explain ; having, in what I give in 
these, chieHy in view the class to which the care of farm steam- 
engines is usually given. 
The qnalitg or heating value, and the mechanical condition, of 
kinds of Coal : — two elements in good Stoking. — Some conceive that 
good stoking wholly depends upon the quality of coal; the 
higher that happens to be, the better the stoking. While the 
quality of the coal is, no doubt, an important factor in the 
calculation, it is by far from being the most important, or 
the only important one, as some claim it to be ; lor a good 
efficient stoker will raise better steam, and keep it more uniformly 
up to the required pressure, with inferior coal than will a 
poor stoker supplied with coal of the best or of much better 
quality. In point of fact, the best quality of coal is not the 
most economical ; it is apt to " fly off" too cjuickly. Considered 
merely by itself, the best quality of coal is of course the best 
for steam-raising purposes. But there are circumstances which 
modify this value. The best qualitv of coal is not, as a 
rule, used lor steam-engine purposes ; and where exceptionally 
high results are obtained in the efficiency of one steam-engine 
as compared with another, it may be worth while to inquire 
what the quality of the fuel emplo3ed is. It will in such cases 
be often found that the so-called most efficient engine has been 
