THE PLAIN * ENGLISH' OF IT. 187 



soil lifted, plus that of the force required to effect 

 the cleavage. Were there no other reason for saying 

 it than this, this alone would entitle the philosophic 

 machinist to say, and see, that the plough was never 

 meant to be immortal. The mere invention of the 

 subsoiler is a standing commentary on the mischief 

 done by the plough. 



* Why then should we struggle for its survival under 

 the new dynasty of Steam ? The true object is not 

 to perpetuate, but as soon as possible to get rid of it. 

 Why poke an instrument seven or eight inches under 

 the clod, to tear it up in the mass by main force, for 

 other instruments to act upon, toiling and treading it 

 down again, in ponderous attempts at cultivation 

 wholesale, when by simple abrasion of the surface 

 by a revolving toothed instrument, with a span as 

 broad as the hay-tedding machine or CROSSKILL'S 

 clod-crusher, you can perform the complete work of 

 comminution in the most light, compendious, and 

 perfect detail ? 



' Imagine such an instrument (not rolling on the 

 ground, but) performing independent revolutions be- 

 hind its locomotive, cutting its way down by surface 

 abrasion, into a semicircular trench about a foot and 

 a half wide, throwing back the pulverised soil (as it 



