THE " STEAM-CULTIVATOK." 219 



good reason why it should be so. There is no 

 particular difficulty or peculiarity about the mech- 

 anism of cultivation, to "forbid the banns" be- 

 tween the soil and the steam-engine : it is generally 

 felt that the match will take place some day, slow 

 and unpromising as the courtship may seem at 

 present. I join hands in this belief; and in the 

 mean time ask your special attention to these prelim- 

 inary points, which may help to account for past 

 delay, and possibly to advance the question from its 

 present silent condition. Silent, because invention 

 is apt to be so. Self-interest keeps it so ; and in the 

 mean time a generation may pass by, and nothing 

 be practically done toward a consummation which, 

 once accomplished, it requires no ghost to see that 

 Great Britain would leap ahead in agriculture as 

 much as her mines of coal and iron, and her still 

 deeper and richer mine of mechanical skill and 

 improvement have led her to do in every art and 

 manufacture upon which the breath of steam has 

 been brought to bear. 



Here in fact lies the grand motive in the matter ; 

 and one so emphatically important in reference to 

 this particular application of steam-power yet to 

 be achieved that one cannot help wishing that all 

 who really think about it who are not of that class 



