THE PLAIN 'ENGLISH' OF IT. 189 



loss of labour and time, occurring during the back- 

 movement necessary to the manual, but not to the 

 mechanical agent. For the same reason, whenever it 

 is applied to till the earth, it will antiquate every 

 instrument that cultivates by traction, because traction 

 is not only not necessary to cultivation, but is in- 

 herently mischievous on other grounds, apart from 

 the clumsiness, inaccuracy, and incompletness of the 

 work it turns out. 



* But THE STONES ! There is much fear expressed 

 for the teeth of the circular- cutting implement I have 

 described, when they come in contact with stones. 

 The objection would have been equally valid, at first 

 sight, against the use of the Plough or the Scuffler. 

 Let me see the instrument in use where there are no 

 stones (and there are plenty of broad acres in Eng- 

 land of this class), and it will not be long before it 

 gets upon the others. If it cost five pounds an acre to 

 clear them out, it must be done, and would, in such 

 case, pay well to do it. But the truth is, that the 

 instrument itself suggests the kind of machine which, 

 with a little adaptation (greater power and slower 

 motion), might perform this preliminary service at 

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

 one respect, I see no good reason why it should not 



