240 CHRONICLES OF A CLAY FARM. 



of comminuted soil a few inches in depth, might 

 surely (one should now suppose) have saved the 

 credit of his generation by some more congenial 

 suggestion for the effectuating of tillage by Steam- 

 power, than attempting to bind it down to an appren- 

 ticeship in which Plows and Harrows, Rollers and 

 Scufflers, or even the spade, were still to figure as the 

 rude terms of the Identure, as out of keeping with 

 its genius and aptitude, as they were irrelevant and 

 non-essential to tillage itself, analytically regarded, 

 apart from its conventional modes necessitated by 

 horse or hand power." 



Such will be the kind of after reflection thrown back 

 upon his forefathers of this generation by our future 

 agricultural historian. "It is true," he will be 

 obliged to add, "there were not wanting heaps 

 of patents and pretensions crowding in confused 

 succession on the public notice, during this period 

 of mental vacuity and decrepitude of invention. 

 Wherever there is a lack of grain there are plenty 

 of weeds to fill the gaping space. There were plow- 

 dragging engines, stationary and locomotive ; there 

 were 'plow-shares on circular frames,' 'revolving 

 spades,' and all the train of piebald monstrosities, 

 and biform incongruities that mark those periods of 

 false gestation and miscarriage in the annals of 



