THE " STEAM-CULTIVATOK." 221 



of texture, would you be very particular to ask 

 whether the mill that crushed the fragrant berry 

 had worked by horizontal, vertical, alternate, elbow- 

 crank, or by circular motion ? If the farmer or the 

 gardener could only have his seed-bed made ready 

 for him as fine as a new moleheap, or to any other 

 coarser texture, according as he wants it, do you 

 think he would care whether the soil had been 

 first cut into longitudinal strips, plow-fashion, or 

 into square cubes, spade-fashion, before it was 

 finally granulated for his use ? Surely the one is as 

 indifferent as the other; and singularly enough, 

 both offer problems far more difficult to the steam- 

 engine (if any thing can be called so,) than the 

 performance at once of the ultimate and entire 

 process without these preliminary forms at all. 



Until steam-power was discovered, this possibility 

 did not exist. Wind and water being out of the 

 question, there remained nothing for it no other 

 power that could be taken into the field but men 

 or horses. Plowing or digging, then, were the in- 

 dispensable preliminaries ; there was no getting on 

 without them ; they were but preliminaries, it is 

 true, the former leaving every thing, the latter a 

 great deal ( according as the work was done ) to be 

 accomplished afterward to complete the cultivation. 



