464 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



are among the miracles of machinery, under the guidance of an 

 intelligence which is an emanation from the Divine Spirit. 

 One hundred and fifty thousand acres, in the neighboring fens, 

 are now in the process of being redeemed from the sea, and com 

 pletely drained, by a similar machinery. The courtiers of the 

 king may now safely challenge him to place his chair upon the 

 beach, and bid the waves retire. What could human labor 

 effect in such cases without the aid of machinery ? For all the 

 men, and women, and children, in England, to have attempted to 

 accomplish such a work, without such help, would have been as 

 wise as to undertake to dip out Lake Superior with a table 

 spoon.* 



2. MACHINERY INCREASES PRODUCTION. The second effect of 

 machinery is, to multiply production to an unlimited extent. A 

 cotton manufactory at Manchester turns out in a day as much 

 cotton cloth as, under the old system of household spinning and 

 weaving, could have been made in all Lancashire in a fortnight, 

 perhaps a month. With improved machinery, twenty acres 

 may I not say fifty? can be ploughed, harrowed, manured, 

 drilled, cultivated, and the produce harvested, and threshed, and 



* &quot; If reference is made to the evidence given before the House of Commons, 

 to which the numerous petitions complaining of agricultural distress were re 

 ferred in 1821, it will be seen that, at that time, almost the only grain produced 

 in the fens of Cambridgeshire consisted of oats. Since then, by draining and 

 manuring, the capability of the soil has been so changed, that these fens now 

 produce some of the finest wheat that is grown in England ; and this more costly 

 grain now constitutes the main dependence of the farmers in a district where, 

 fourteen years ago, its production was scarcely attempted.&quot; 



&quot; It has been found that an engine of the power of ten horses is sufficient for 

 draining 1000 acres of land, and that, on the average of years, this work may be 

 performed by setting the engine in motion for periods amounting in the aggre 

 gate to 20 days of 12 hours each, or 240 hours in all. Several engines have 

 been erected for this purpose within the last threo or four years, some of them 

 having the power of GO or 70 horses : each of these large engines is employed in 

 draining from 6000 to 7000 acres of land. The cost of the first establishment of 

 these engines is stated to be 1 per acre, and the expense of keeping them at 

 work 2 s. 6 d. per acre. This plan is found to bring with it the further advantage 

 that, in the event of long-continued drought, the farmer can, without apprehension, 

 admit the water required for his cattle, and for the purpose of irrigation, secure 

 in the means he possesses of regulating the degree of moisture, if the drought 

 as is frequently the case, should be followed by an excess of rain.&quot; Porter s 

 Progress of the Nation. 



