204 CHRONICLES OF A CLAY FARM. 



again' 'ridging up,' 'sowing,' and 'harrowing in'; 

 but of all these epithet processes in one comprehen- 

 sive act and word Cultivation. 



Is it not astonishing, with such experiences as we 

 have before us in England, that since the first introduc- 

 tion of Steam power to the notice and assistance of 

 mankind, nobody has ever yet attempted to apply it 

 in its own way to the definable and simple work of cul- 

 tivation. It is put to cut chaff, to make sawdust, to 

 granulate powder, to make pins' heads, to reduce all 

 sorts of coarse material into fine and all by wheels, 

 circular motion, and nothing else, for nothing else 

 will it accept, but nobody can persuade their minds 

 to believe that by the self-same action, and no other, it 

 fjan cut up a seam of soil eight inches deep and six 

 feet wide, and leave it behind granulated to as coarse or 

 fine a texture as the nature of the seed or season may 

 require, and inverted in its bed. It is not ploughing, 

 it is not digging, it is not harrowing, raking, hoeing, 

 rolling, scarifying, clod-crushing, scuffling, grubbing, 

 ridging, casting, gathering, that we want : all these 

 are the time-honoured, time-bothered means to a 

 certain RESULT. That result is a seed-bed : and a 

 seed-bed is, simply described, a layer of soil from six 

 to twelve inches in depth, rendered fine by commi- 



