THE PLAIN 'ENGLISH' OF IT. 183 



least expense. If land is to be like a garden in one 

 respect, I see no good reason why it should not in all. 

 I do not think stones will stand long in the way of 

 Sfeam, or be readily preferred to bread ; if, where 

 there happen to be none, a steam-driven cultivator 

 can be brought to bear, which, after the simple and 

 beautiful example of the mole, shall play out the long 

 comedy of our present field cultivation in a single act, 

 present a finely-granulated seed-bed by a single pro- 

 cess, almost at the hour required; and trammel up 

 the ' long summer fallow ' into the labour of a day, 

 with an accuracy as perfect as the turning of a Lathe, 

 and an aeration (and consequent oxygenation) of the 

 soil as diffusive and minute as that of a scattered 

 mole-heap, or the dust flying from a circular-saw- 

 bench. 



Implement-makers and mechanicians would not be 

 long in understanding all this, if they were not under 

 the supposition, received at second hand by them, 

 and therefore the more difficult to eradicate, that 

 ploughing is a necessary form of cultivation to be 

 kept in view. Once let the Q.E.F. be clearly under- 

 stood by them ; once let them be made fully to per- 

 ceive that ' ploughing ' is merely the first of a long 

 series of means towards the accomplisliment of a par- 



