THE FARMER»S MAGAZINE. 



935 



few in number, defective in principle, and still moio 

 glaringly defective in point of construction; but by 

 dint of perseverance, and the outlay of large sums, tlie 

 number of effective machines was greatly augmented, 

 till, from the rudimental ones, as the spade, the plough, 

 and the harrow, we had the roller, the clod-crusher, 

 tlie grubber, and a host of otiiers, too numerous to take 

 note of here. Construction at the same time was at- 

 tended to, till the rude unfinished examples of early 

 days were supplanted by those in which accuracy of 

 detail and highness of finish strove for the mastery. 

 With the increase of supply came the increase of de- 

 mand, till at last, from a lew isolated makers scattered 

 here and there through rural districts, working in tiny 

 shops, sprang up the great makers of the present, day, 

 with their giant establishments sending out thousands 

 of machines and implements, owing their existence to 

 the labours of hosts of workmen. 



Such, indeed, has been the astonishing results of the 

 labours of engineering during the last half- century, 

 and such the pitch of comparative perfection to which 

 she has brought the working apparatus of agriculture, 

 that in some measure many have begun to believe and 

 give utterances — vague and unsatisfactory enough, it is 

 true — to the belief that in many of the departments 

 perfection has been attained. It is quite understand- 

 able how a person, who for long years has devoted him- 

 self to the study of one branch of mechanism, and has 

 with indomitable perseverance carried out the results of 

 his study into practice, should, after introducing a long 

 succession of improvements, come at last to the con- 

 viction — latent, if not expressed — that he has exhausted 

 his capabilities, and forestalled all improvements. 

 This result in such a case is quite easily understood ; 

 but it is as easily so that the party in such a position is 

 the very last to judge accurately on the matter. Out- 

 siders are the best judges of the merits of the case, and 

 are much more likely to come to an accurate apprecia- 

 tion of all its details than the party immediately con- 

 cerned in the upholding of that " interest" to which he 

 is so attached. " My friends," said brave old Samuel 

 Johnson, " free yourselves from cant" — capable of be- 

 ing done, truly : but had he said " Free yourselves 

 from prejudice" — the result very doubtful. Human 

 nature is human nature; and we can quite understand 

 how the proprietor of the finest-finished, the best- 

 appointed, and quickest-moving stage-coach, folded 

 his hands complacently as he smoked his pipe and 

 drank his brandy-and-water in the parlour of that inn 

 past which his fine conveyance whirled, and pronounced 

 it, as it went careering past, as the perfection of convey- 

 ances, and the very limit of locomotion. He did not 

 think, poor man, that it was to be utterly supplanted 

 by a locomotive of still more marvellous speed ; and, 

 that however perfect his coach was, it was only j)erfect 

 in its way. Just so with much of our agricultural 

 mechanism : it may be argued that it has reached the 

 point of j/ositive perfection— so much ingenuity has 

 been expended in its arrangement, in the perfecting of 

 its principle, and in the accuracy of its construction, 

 that further improvement is hopeless. But it should 

 not be overlooked that all this may be granted, and yet 

 the door of progress need not be shut. The machine, 

 any machine — we name none particularly — may be 

 perfect, may be incapable of improvement ^er se ; so 

 far as it is the representative of a class it may be all 

 that is required, but that class may itself be superseded 

 — be entirely shut out of the field of practice, just as 

 completely as was the stage-coach by the railway loco- 

 motive. Progress is ever onward : there is in nothing 

 here such a thing as standing still. The stand point of 

 to-day to which we have attained, however high we 

 deem it, must act aa the stepping-stone to raise us still 



higher. It is but folly to suppose that we have reached 

 the limit of our elevation. The wanderer in mountain 

 regions thinks each hill he mounts the last he has to 

 ascend, but it only enables him to see before him a 

 wider prospect, a longer range, and a higher series. 

 We may have reached perfection in some of the depart- 

 ments of agricultural machinery ; but so far, in the 

 broadest sense, are we from perfection in its mechanism 

 generally, that we are but on the eve of still greater 

 wonders — still more marvellous successes than we have 

 yet witnessed. The farthest seeing amongst us do not 

 hesitate to call this period in which we now live a 

 " transition" one. Our past experience has been act- 

 ing but as a guide to show us what is needed, what is 

 to be avoided, what to be earnestly striven after. One 

 point we are clearly drifting to, namely, that in which 

 human and animal labour will be superseded by steam- 

 power — in which the mind to judge, and the will to 

 direct, superior mechanism, will be looked for from the 

 farm-servant far more than a mere strength of muscle 

 or of bone. Steam, in what it has done, has given us 

 the best earnest of what it will do for agriculture. 

 Much as engineering, then, has done for agriculture, it 

 has still more to do : the demands upon its skill are 

 greater than ever ; and, with the new ambition which 

 success has engendered, agriculture, in place of being 

 less, will be more exacting in its claims. Ere long the 

 question will be, not " Can you, the engineer, aid me in 

 this 1" but all shade of doubt as to what he can do 

 having been dispelled by the successes of past years, it 

 will be changed to " Will you do it for me ? The 

 capability I know you have — you have done not a little 

 to convince mo of that ; but have you the will to assist 

 me?" Nor will engineering refuse any more lience- 

 Jprtli than she has done hitherto to obey the call, and 

 give her best counsels and her richest genius and skill 

 to aid the onward progress of agriculture — the " mother 

 of all the arts." 



We have said that the union between engineering and 

 agriculture has been productive of great results, and 

 have briefly glanced at the most striking of these. But, 

 although we have as yet chiefly sung the praises of En- 

 gineering, let it not be supposed that we deem Agricul- 

 ture herself to have been a mere spectator — a passive 

 instrument in the hands of Engineering. If Engineer- 

 ing has done so much for Agriculture, Agriculture has 

 done not a little for Engineering. If not, how explain 

 you, the rapid rise of agricultural engineering — a branch 

 which, for extent of labour done and capital invested, is 

 scarcely second to any in the kingdom ? The supply of 

 good implements and machines may have increased, if 

 not created, the demand. More usual is it for political- 

 economists to say that the demand has created the sup- 

 ply. Truly, had the agriculturists not been desirous to 

 buy, the implement-makers might have made in vain. 

 " It is easy," says the proverb, *' to take a horse to the 

 water ; but it is not so easy to make him drink." The 

 result would be much the same, we opine, if the water 

 was taken to him. But the truth is that — despite the 

 absurd talk there has been for long, and, unfortunately, 

 to some extent, now is, of the slowness of farmers to 

 avail themselves of new improvements and of the best 

 facilities for carrying on their operations — they have 

 shown a liberality of sentiment, and a freedom of 

 action, in every way praiseworthy. So far, indeed, 

 from their having shown a " pig-headedness" — to use 

 the neat expression often made use of, in speaking of 

 farmers, by people who don't know anything about 

 them — in this same matter of employing machines, has 

 it not been the case, in a variety ol instances, that 

 they have been so eager to adopt new things, that they 

 have perforce been " taken in" — not to mince the 

 matter — and have purchased articles a great deal more 



