234 CHRONICLES OF A CLAY FARM. 



pleasure, to regulate the settlement of the soil which 

 scatters from it. The revolution of the cylinder is 

 not against but with that of the wheels not drag- 

 ging or retarding, but rather helping the advance of 

 the whole machine, which is moved slowly forward 

 by a detached force of about two horse-power from 

 the Engine, 



When, at some future day, and by some pen not 

 yet out of straight strokes and pot-hooks, there shall 

 be written, for the edification of the agricultural 

 public, an historical sketch of the " Rise and Pro- 

 gress of Steam Cultivation," it is to be feared that 

 some of the reflections will not be of the most com- 

 plimentary kind to the genius or the faith of the 

 generation that has embraced nearly in one experi- 

 ence the development of Steam Navigation, of the 

 Railroad system, the Electric Telegraph, and other 

 kindred appliances in the many-pathed field of 

 practical science. 



"It was strange," we may suppose our future 

 annalist to write, " that amid the blaze of surround- 

 ing discovery in the arts that economize the labor 

 and advance the condition of man, an application 

 of steam-power that must surely have pressed with 

 such powerful motive and exigency on a period 

 when an extensive change of commercial policy 



