THE PLAIN 'ENGLISH' OF IT. 185 



day, till the several inventors had come to see in turn 

 that 



" Tis gude to be off with the old love 

 Before ye be on wi' the new ! " 



* But no one can imagine, without trying it, the 

 difficulty of making the mechanical part of the 

 question intelligible to the agriculturist, and the 

 agricultural part to the machinist. The steam-engine 

 has no taste whatever for straight draught. He is a 

 revolutionist, in the most exact sense of the word. 

 He works by revolution : and by revolution only 

 will he cut up the soil into a seed-bed, of the pattern 

 required, be it coarse or fine. And that, it is my firm 

 belief, he will be seen doing at a handsome average, 

 before a very large portion of another century shall 

 have passed over. Why should it not be ? Why 

 should not a strip or layer of earth be cut up into 

 fine soil at one operation (and sown and harrowed in, 

 too), as easily as a circular saw cuts a plank into 

 saw -dust ? But when you come to employing 



a Steam-engine 



to turn a Drum, 



to wind a Rope, 



to drag a Plough, 



to turn up a Furrow, 



