16 



Present State of the Science of 



of permanent improvement judiciously applied on tlie soil to 

 bring back its cost with interest, nor can this objection be allowed 

 any weight as long as a single acre of the farm is stagnant with 

 water, or dry because the soil is shallow, while there is a possi- 

 bility of its being deepened. Indeed, if you once establish a 

 moving power on your farm, whether steam, water, or wind, it is 

 not the labour only of threshing that may be saved to men or 

 horses, but the winnowing, the dressing, the chaff-cutting ; even 

 the turnip-slicing machine, when the turnip is consumed at home, 

 may be grafted on to the principal wheels, and thus borrow their 

 motion. The more labour is thus set free from mere work of 

 routine, the more will be applied to the further improvement of 

 the parent of all agricultural labour, the soil. Having mentioned 

 the turnip-slicer, we cannot but say that, while we would willingly 

 rest the necessity for increased intercourse among the agricultural 

 body, upon the varying practices which prevail in different parts 

 of England with regard to the turnip alone, a strong argument 

 may be drawn for it from the limited use even of this implement 

 only. It consists in some simple machinery of knives, turned by 

 a handle, enclosed within a box, above which is a trough into 

 which the whole turnips are placed, and below which the slices 

 fall into another receptacle : the whole may be placed on a wheel 

 and two legs, and moved about the field like a wheelbarrow. 

 The advantage is two-fold, saving the teeth of the old ewes, for 

 which the Swedish turnips, especially, are too hard ; saving the 

 waste of this valuable root, which, when partially scooped out by 

 the sheep, is rotted and trampled about with great waste. The 

 economy effected by this simple machine, which costs but 6 or 

 £7., has been stated to us by an authority which would at 

 once be admitted as very high, to be no less than one-third of the 

 whole produce. If it be taken, however, only at a fourth or a 

 fifth, why, it may be asked, has not every farm in the country been 

 long since furnished with this cheap apparatus ? If a contrivance 

 were discovered in Manchester which should save one- fifth of the 

 cotton consumed in a manufacture (were such a saving possible) 

 not a year would pass before most of the old machinery would be 

 replaced by the new, and such changes are constantly taking 

 place there, at the expense of many thousand pounds ; but the 

 turnip is the raw material of the farmer's stock, and the farmer is 

 of the same enterprising race with the manufacturer : why, then, 

 but on account of the separate and secluded scene of his industry, 

 is the spread of agricultural inventions so slow — the extension of 

 those which concern manufactures, so rapid ; and what but a 

 central connection of the cultivators of the soil can diminish the 

 distance and remove the obstruction ? 



The mention of this last instrument has brought us to a most 



