THE " STEAM-CULTIVATOR." 



mould-board, without spade, hoe, or pickax, leaves 

 behind her in her rapid track a finer mould than 

 ever RANSOME, HOWARD, or CROSSKCLL than ever 

 spade or rake produced, or the most careful-handed 

 gardener chopped up to pot his plants with. The 

 very rabbit that scratches his hole in the ground, or 

 the fox that scratches after him like the king-crab, 

 to eat the kernel and lie in the shell or the dog 

 that scratches after both the whole tribe of " claw 

 foot," in fact had scratched hard earth into soft 

 mould, before ever the plow or the spade, or even 

 the more ancient hoe, had broken ground on this 

 planet. 



Let us begin from the beginning : let us take 

 " Cultivation " itself into serious thought for a seri- 

 ous moment, and analyze it into its simplest elements, 

 dropping all conventionalities of plodding custom. 

 What is it? How would you do it, if you had nei- 

 ther plow, nor spade, nor hoe, nor rake to help you? 

 With the same tools that the monks of La Trappe 

 used to dig their graves with, and in the same 

 manner ! If the mole, the rabbit, the fox, the dog, 

 are not sufficient indicators, take the hand of a man, 

 glove it with hardened steel, multiply it a dozen or 

 twenty times, till you have an instrument as broad 

 as CKOSSKILL'S clod-crusher, each hand or claw 



