362 
Utilisation of Waste Substances and 
and beyond the range, if not near to the buildings. It is 
not necessary to point out the changes, not only in the work 
hitherto done in a certain way, but also the new direction in 
which work has to be done, which has led to this concentration 
at the buildings of work requiring "power" to do it with. But 
it is so, and it is likely to be on the increase, especially in 
the case of large farms and of estates. It is therefore, with 
many, open at least to doubt the wisdom of employing portable 
engines for such a class or for such classes of work ; and this in 
view of the much higher mechanical effect, or, to put it in 
popular phrase, tlie more economical work got out of stationary 
than out of poi table engines worked under the ordinary routine 
of farm labour. 
Some may be inclined to join issue with me here, and to dis- 
pute this. But the present is not the place to discuss the merits 
of a question long ago, in point of fact, decided. It is sufficient 
for the purposes of this paper to rest satisfied that I am in the 
main putting this point correctly in the terms which I have 
employed, to which only I may add that, to those who are 
intimately acquainted with the essentials of accurate machine 
working, ocular proof of the correctness of my statement may be 
obtained in cases where there is a fixed or stationary engine and 
a portable engine working side by side. In this conjunction, 
not difficult to be met with, the actual mechanical conditions of 
the two classes of engines — each being in its own class of the 
same rank or quality — can be seen. And I leave it to any 
skilled mechanic to say which of the two engines comes in its 
working the nearest to the perfect supply of all the mechanical 
necessities of the case. It is not of course contended that sta- 
tionary engines are better than portable ones for all classes of 
work. Such a position, in the actual circumstances of general 
farm and estate work, would simply be absurd. All that is 
here affirmed is that, under circumstances greatly on the in- 
crease, especially on large farms and almost always on large 
estates where there is a sufficiency of regular work done at a 
fixed point — the workshop of the buildings — and by the aid of 
fixed machinery capable of steady and uniform working at what- 
ever speed driven, to employ a steam-engine regularly and 
constantly, it will tend to higher economy in working to put 
down a fixed engine and boiler. When the work at the 
buildings is fluctuating and irregular, and a portable engine in 
any case is employed on the farm, for which, again, there is only 
irregular work, it will tlien of course be the cheapest way to 
use the portable engine in the workshop as it is required. 
Much could be said here under this head, did space permit, 
from which some practical hints as to the economical use and 
