THE SUBJECT CONTINUED. 237 



and no longer : since it formed ( as the spade had 

 already shown ) no necessary element of cultivation, 

 and had no relevance whatever with the action or 

 capabilities of the Steam-engine. 



"Steam-power having, however, been hitherto 

 chiefly employed in Manufactures, and its versatile 

 modes of application being unfamiliar to the agri- 

 culturist, we can scarcely be surprised, that even 

 those few who gave a serious thought to the subject, 

 looked upon the Steam-engine rather as a piece of 

 concentrated horse-power to be harnessed as best it 

 might to the existing horse-worked implements, than 

 as a New Agent, whose entry on the scene of action 

 enabled him to reconsider the whole philosophy of 

 Tillage, to analyze it into its elements, to see what 

 it was; what it had l>een when confined to manual 

 power under the primeval dynasty of the Spade 

 and the Hoe : what it was under the advanced but 

 equally special limitations of animal power, as 

 exhibited in the Plow and every other implement 

 of draught ; and what it might le under the wider 

 sphere of available process which the Steam-engine 

 presented. What was cultivation? Did Steam- 

 power offer any cheaper, better, or more direct mode 

 of performing it, than manual or animal power had 

 done ? Could it accomplish in one act the problem 



