296 History of the English Landed Inte^^est. 



not so much, in form, ■v^dll be as much depended on by a 

 farmer." ^ 



In equally plain language an appeal was in print for the 

 use of the engineer if only he cared to study it : — 



" Perfect mechanics," Young, in his Political Essays, declares, 

 are " of vast importance ; for notwithstanding the opinion of 

 some politicians, that tlie invention of those machines which, 

 with slight labour, perform the work of a thousand hands is 

 prejudicial to a State, too much reliance should not be placed 

 on it." Evidently this writer desired to attract the eye of 

 the implement-maker when he wrote that there was consider- 

 able room for improvement in the instruments of cultivation 

 already in use. In the plough, for example, the directions in 

 which improvement shoukl move, he says, are " depth and 

 levelness of cutting, combined with, ease of draught." For 

 these qualities the Suffolk plough seems to have been better 

 adapted than the Rotherham. Varieties of the instrument 

 were wanted to cut more than one furrow at once, to make 

 the drills under Tull's new system, and to cut drains and 

 ditches. Horse-hoes were apparently good enough ; not so 

 harrows, Vvhich varied in shape and construction in almost 

 every county. The best this writer had seen was one with 

 bent teeth, and handles like a double-breasted plough. All, 

 however, had a material defect in that, if the land were not 

 ploughed exceedingly fine, frequent repetitions of the process 

 were necessary, " which kneaded and hardened the earth by 

 so much treading of the draught cattle, instead of leaving it 

 loose and fine." The chief requirement was a harrow which 

 would with once going over the land reduce " all the clods on 

 the surface to powder, stir the ground enough to cover any 

 seed, and with sufficient force to at the same time stir up the 

 spots flattened by the feet of the cattle, leaving the surface 

 fine and level. Possibly such an implement might be framed 

 upon the principle of horizontal wheels, which would grind 

 the clods turned up by its perpendicular teeth." 



A machine for threshing corn was wanted as a substitute for 



* A Dissertation on the Chief Obstacles to the Improvement of Land, 



etc. Aberdeen, 1760. 



