STEAM IN AGRICULTURE. 241 



I think few will doubt that the inventions in aid 

 of Agriculture during the last forty years will be far 

 surpassed by those of the forty years just before us. 

 The magnificent fortunes which, it is currently un- 

 derstood, have rewarded the inventors of the more 

 popular Mowers, Reapers, etc., of our day, are sure 

 to stimulate alike the ingenuity and the avarice of 

 clever men throughout the coming years, and to call 

 into existence ten thousand patents, whereof a hun- 

 dred will be valuable, and ten or twelve eminently 

 useful. Plowing land free from stumps and stones 

 cannot long be the tedious, patience-trying process we 

 have known it. The machinery which will at once 

 pulverize the soil to a depth of two feet, fertilize and 

 seed it, not requiring it to be trampled by the hoofs 

 of animals employed in subsoiling and harrowing, 

 will soon be in general use, especially on the spacious, 

 deep, inviting prairies of the Great West. But I 

 must defer what I have to say of Steam and its uses 

 in Agriculture to another chapter. 



XLI. 



STEAM IN AGRICULTURE. 



As yet, the great body of. our farmers have been 

 slow in availing themselves of the natural forces in 

 operation around them. Yainly for them does the 

 ii 



