'THE STEAM-CULTIVATOR.' 195 



.and be wise" who without any coulter share or 

 mould-board, without spade, hoe, or pickaxe, leaves 

 behind her in her rapid track a finer mould than ever 

 RAXSOME, HOWARD, or CROSSKILL than ever spade 

 or rake produced, or the most careful-handed gar- 

 dener chopped up, to pot his plants with. The very 

 rabbit that scratches his hole in the ground, or the 

 fox that scratches after him, like a king-crab, to 

 eat the kernel and lie in the shell, or the dog that 

 scratches after both, the whole tribe of " claw-foot " 

 in fact, had scratched hard earth into soft mould, 

 before ever the plough or the spade, or even the more 

 ancient Hoe, had broken ground on this planet. 



Let us begin from the beginning : let us take 

 'Cultivation' itself into thought for a serious moment, 

 and analyse it into its simplest elements, dropping all 

 conventionalities of plodding custom. What is it? 

 How would you do it, if you had neither plough nor 

 spade nor hoe nor rake to help you ? With the same 

 tool that the Monks of La Trappc used to dig their 

 graves, and in the same manner ! If the mole, the 

 rabbit, the fox, the dog, are not sufficient indicators, 

 take the hand of man, glove it with hardened steel, 

 multiply it a dozen or twenty times, till you have an 

 instrument as broad as CROSSK ILL'S clod-crusher, 



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