212 CHRONICLES OF A CLAY FARM. 



steam-engine about its proper task, in the proper 

 way. But their attention is distracted, at present, 

 from the end to the means. They are taught to 

 think that the plow is a sine qua non that steam- 

 cultivation of necessity implies steam-plowing, and 

 they are led to give up the task in despair, because 

 they are at fault upon a false scent. 



"We have many rolling implements employed in 

 the field, but we have only one instance of a revolv- 

 ing implement. The clod-crusher and the J^orwe- 

 gian-harrow roll, the hay-tedding machine (one of 

 the best instruments ever invented) revolves. I use 

 the words somewhat arbitrarily, but the difference I 

 allude to is very important. The first are liable to 

 the evil of ' clogging ;' because they derive their 

 axis-motion from the soil as they pass over and 

 press upon it. This action must not be confounded 

 with that of a machine which has its cause of revo- 

 lution within itself^ independent and acting upon 

 the soil as a circular saw acts upon a board, or the 

 paddle-wheel of a steamer upon the water. The 

 teeth of a saw clear themselves, by the centrifugal 

 motion they communicate to the particles they have 

 detached from the substance they act upon. A cir- 

 cular 'cultivator' steam-driven will do the same. It 

 does so more effectually according to the speed (of 



