Page:Miscellaneous Papers on Mechanical Subjects.djvu/60

52 our people are able to consume larger quantities of everything that they require. When the farm labourer pays less for his sugar and tea, more meat will be consumed (which again goes to improve the land); also more wool for our manufactures.

In this wonderful power of producing wealth which now exists, none can be more interested and benefited than the proprietors of the land. A striking proof of this is given by its increased value in the manufacturing counties, and for miles adjoining our manufacturing towns. The competition, too, of our manufacturers and merchants to become possessors of land is shown by the small rate of interest with which they are satisfied, for the outlay of their capital on the soil. The proprietors of land may rest assured that, in the future development of mechanical improvements, none will be more benefited than themselves. I do not hesitate to say that all harvest operations on land, properly laid down, will very shortly be performed in one-fourth the time required with the hand labour now expended, by the farther application of machines worked by horse-power. This is my conviction, based upon the experience I have had in the successful working of the machine I constructed for sweeping the streets, and at the same time filling the cart, by horse-power. By the combined aid of