112 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [April, 



not their sole resource ; hence the rapid and prodigious develop- 

 ment of the guano-trade; hence the multiplication of manurial 

 products from every form of waste, as manifested in the patent 

 records; hence the celebrated " nitrogen theory " and the " high- 

 farming" system, to which allusion will presently be made; 

 hence, lastly, that ransacking of the whole world for bones, so 

 criminal in Liebig's view. 



Application of Steam-Power to Agriculture. — But 

 steam-power, which has imposed upon the British cultivator this 

 Btrusrarle for existence, brinors him also the means of issuino; victo- 

 rious from the encounter. Why may not the steam-urged plough- 

 share pass to and fro through the field, as the steam-driven shut- 

 tle passes through the fabric in the loom ? If pure water can be 

 pumped by steam-power at an infinitesimal cost into a town for 

 its supply, why may not the very same water, enriched with the 

 eject I of the population, and so converted into a powerful manure, 

 be also pumped out of the town by steam-power, and applied to 

 maintain the fertility of the land ? In a word, why may not hus- 

 bandry rise, in its turn, from the rank of a handicraft to that of 

 a mmufictare ; the farm be organized and worked like a faciory ; 

 and food, like every other commodity, be at length produced by 

 steam-power f These questions are now in every mouth; and 

 the agricultural revolution they imply appears to be, at this mo- 

 ment, in course of accomplishment by the English people. Already, 

 on many an English farm, the characteristic tall fac^o y-chimney 

 is seen rising among the trees; the steam-engine is heard panting 

 below; and the rapid thres ing-wheel, with its noisy revolutions, 

 supersedes the laborer's tardy flail. 



Already, at som3\vhat fewer points, the farm-locomotive stands 

 Bmjking in tka field, winding to and fro, round the anchored wind- 

 lass, the slender rope of steel which draws the rapid plough-share 

 through the soil ; thus furrowed twice as deep, and thrice as fast, 

 as formerly by man and horse ; and thus economically enriched 

 with proportionately-increased supplies of atmospheric plant-food. 

 And lastly, already, at still rarer intervals, the subterranean pipes 

 for sewage-irrigation ramify beneath the fields, precisely as the 

 pipes for water-distribution ramify beneath the streets of the adja- 

 cent town ; the propelling power being in both cases that of 

 steam. 



These innovations are doubtless still experimental; and like 



