208 CHRONICLES OF A CLAY FARM. 



this alone would entitle the philosophic machinist 

 to say, and see, that the plow was never meant to 

 be immortal. The mere invention of the, subsoiler 

 is a standing commentary on the mischief done by 

 the plow. 



"Why then should we struggle for its survival 

 under the new dynasty of Steam? The true object 

 is not to perpetuate, but as soon as possible to get 

 rid of it. Why poke an instrument seven or eight 

 inches under the clod, to tear it up in the mass by 

 main force, for other instruments to act upon, 

 toiling and treading it down again, in ponderous 

 attempts at cultivation wholesale when by simple 

 abrasion of the surface by a revolving toothed 

 instrument, with a span as broad as the hay-tedding 

 machine or CKOSSKILL'S clod-crusher, you can per- 

 form the complete work of. comminution in the most 

 light, compendious, and perfect detail? 



" Imagine such an instrument (not rotting on the 

 ground, but) performing independent revolutions 

 behind its locomotive, cutting its way down by 

 surface abrasion, into a semicircular trench about a 

 foot and a half wide, throwing back the pulverized 

 soil (as it flies back from the feet of a dog scratching 

 at a rabbit-hole :) then imagine the locomotive mov- 

 ing forward on the hard ground with a slow and 



