comedy of Speed the Plough, "that a healthy
young man between the handles of a plough,
is one of the noblest illustrations of the
prosperity of Britain." But shortly after saying
this, Sir Abel invents a splendid curricle
plough drawn by high-bred Leicestershire
horses; who set off at full gallop with the
plough at their heels over hill and dale, and
instead of doing the allotted work a-field, they
rush about at random, ploughing up Salisbury
Plain. What would Sir Abel have said to
Sir Willoughby de Eresby's snorting steam-
horse, perfectly under control?

His machinery consists of a locomotive
engine, weighing only three-and-a-half tons,
and of a twenty-six horse power. It was
designed by Mr. Gooch. It has a double
capstan attached, "removable, when the engine
is required for other purposes." His lordship
does not indicate any of these; but we may
fairly imagine that his farm-engine will
possess the Bame versatile genius as the
inventions which have preceded it. His
description of this machinery is very brief, clear,
and without the use of any technical terms.

"The engine moves across the centre of the field
on a light, portable railway. The ploughs
advance and recede on either side of the railway,
at right angles to it.

"The ploughs employed consist of four ordinary,
and four subsoil ploughs, fixed in a frame.
It is directed by a person standing upon a small
platform.

"Two such ploughs, one on either side the
railway, alternately advance and recede; the
advancing plough working, the other idle until it
regains its proper position, for ploughing the next
four furrows. On the completion of the four
furrows both ways, the engine and side frames
advance each three feet.

"The ploughs are attached to an endless chain,
one hundred and fifty yards in length. They can
be detached at pleasure, or shifted from one side
of the chain to the other. They travel at the
rate of five miles an hour. Provision is made in
case they strike against any impediment."

Arrangements are also made to suit
irregularly shaped fields. The full power of the
engine is not exerted with the ploughs, as
thus described; and the number of blades
can be increased if desirable. And now for
the next statement, which brings us to a most
important consideration.

"In the present state of things, it is difficult to
form a correct estimate of the value of tbe invention
in a commercial point of view. I will only
say that a machine of the power, and with the
arrangement described, would perform the work
usually done by sixteen ploughs, driven by as many
men, and drawn by thirty-two horses. Requiring
itself the attendance of eight men, and a horse to
draw the water for the engine, it would thus save
the labour of thirty-one horses and eight men.
Against this must be set an expense of five
shillings a day for coals."

In examining the question of economy in
the use of steam-power instead of horses, we
shall obtain valuable assistance from a paper
addressed to Mr. J. T. Osborne, of Demerara,
by the Council of the Highland Society. This
paper sets the period of the productive labour
of a horse against the unproductive period
necessary for its rest, and exhibits results of
a startling kind. Horses are fed and tended
three hundred and sixty-five days of twenty-
four hours, or eight thousand seven hundred
and sixty hours in the year. But they work
only three hundred days, of about eight hours,
taking the average, or two thousand four
hundred hours a year. Thus we have a clear
loss of six thousand three hundred and sixty
hours of unproductive feeding and tending.
It may be argued, that they are not fed and
tended throughout the night, and therefore
there is no such loss as the figures displayed
by the Highland Society; but they are fed
and tended enough to suffice them during the
night, for which no compensating work is
performed, so that it comes, we think, to
nearly the same thing.

According to Mc Culloch, there are about
one million two hundred thousand agricultural
horses employed in Great Britain, which, at
twenty-five pounds per head for maintenance,
amounts to thirty millions sterling per annum
for their keep. The unproductive portion,
therefore, he finds amounting to the enormous
sum of twenty-one millions seven hundred
and eighty-five thousand three hundred and
six pounds. It will be seen that this estimate
is founded on the previous figures displaying
the number of hours of feeding and tendence,
compared with the number of hours' work,
and the consequent loss of six thousand
three hundred and sixty hours. The only
compensation for this loss of hours,
represented by the above sum of upwards of
twenty-one millions sterling, is in the value
of the manure, which is thus produced at too
great a cost.

"There are insuperable difficulties," writes
the Council of the Highland Society,
"attending the employment of vital power;
but mechanical power puts forth its energy
when called for––it can be regulated, and, at
pleasure, stopped. If it is desired to occupy
the entire hours of daylight––to extend the
fieId of operations––to work up more raw
material––the energy of the animal ceases after
a time; but not so that of the machine. The
longest hours of summer may be
advantageously employed." And why not in the
shortest nights of winter also? Could not
steam-ploughs be made to carry their own
lights with Hale Thomson's patent silvered-
glass reflectors, like other locomotives?

The next sentence brings us full-butt against
the corner-stone of our social edifice, and moots
the question as to the effect of machinery in
increasing the demand for human labour:––
"Were the whole period of daylight industriously
employed in the most effective manner
––that is, by the employment of machinery
the demand for human labour would be