24 A Walk from 



bullocks, beans, and sheep, and other vital things and 

 interests, which forty centuries have looked upon with 

 reverence ! To plough, thresh, cut turnips, grind corn, 

 and pump water for cattle by steam ! What next ? 



Why, next, the farmers of the region round about 



" First pitied, then embraced " 



this new and powerful auxiliary to agricultural industry, 

 after having watched its working and its worth. And 

 now, thanks to such bold and spirited novices as Mr. 

 Mechi men who had the pluck to work steadily on under 

 the pattering rain of derisive epithets there are already 

 nearly as many steam engines working at farm labor 

 between Land's End and John 0' Groat's as there are 

 employed in the manufacture of cotton in Great Britain. 



His irrigation system will doubtless be followed in 

 the same order and interval by those who have pooh- 

 poohed it with the same derision and incredulty as the 

 other innovations they have already adopted. The 

 utilising of the sewage of large towns, especially of 

 London, has now become a prominent idea and move- 

 ment. Mr. Mechi's machinery and process are admir- 

 ably adapted to the work of distributing a river of this 

 fertilising material over any farm to which it may be 

 conducted. Thus, there is good reason to believe that 

 the very process he originated for softening and enrich- 

 ing the hard and sterile acres of his small farm in Essex 



