The Scientific Agriculture of the Period. 299 



that an ear of wheat, when squeezed between two blunt 

 edges, causes the grain to be spurted aside, invented a 

 threshing-machine in which this phenomenon was utilised. 

 Failure again attended the venture ; but, nothing daunted, 

 the implement-makers of the period redoubled their efforts, 

 until success was ultimately achieved. At first, at any rate, 

 the mechanician outstripped the chemist in the speed with 

 which he responded to the agricultural wants of the age, 

 though ultimately the one was destined to be as great a 

 benefactor as the other. So far as has been now pointed out, 

 the political economist, the man of science, and the civil 

 engineer were all aroused to direct their services to the im- 

 provement of the national husbandry. When next we revert 

 to this branch of our history, we shall find that chemists v/ere 

 on the eve of revolutionising by their fresh discoveries the 

 entire agricultural economy. 



