But men shut their eyes wilfully to these plain facts, and cried out that the rain had ruined them.  It was not the rain—­it was their own intense dislike of making any improvement.  The vis inertiae of the agricultural class was beyond the limit of language to describe.  Why, if the land had been drained the rain would have done comparatively little damage, and thus they would have been independent of the seasons.  Look, again, at the hay crop; how many thousand tons of hay had been wasted because men would not believe that anything would answer which had not been done by their forefathers!  The hay might have been saved by three distinct methods.  The grass might have been piled against hurdles or light frame-work and so dried by the wind; it might have been pitted in the earth and preserved still green; or it might have been dried by machinery and the hot blast.  A gentleman had invented a machine, the utility of which had been demonstrated beyond all doubt.  But no; farmers folded their hands and watched their hay rotting.

As for the wheat crop, how could they expect a wheat crop?  They had not cleaned the soil—­there were horse-hoes, and every species of contrivances for the purpose; but they would not use them.  They had not ploughed deeply:  they had merely scratched the surface as if with a pin.  How could the thin upper crust of the earth—­the mere rind three inches thick—­be expected to yield crop after crop for a hundred years?  Deep ploughing could only be done by steam:  now how many farmers possessed or used steam-ploughs?  Why, there were whole districts where such a thing was unknown.  They had neglected to manure the soil; to restore to it the chemical constituents of the crops.  But to speak upon artificial manure was enough to drive any man who had the power of thought into temporary insanity.  It was so utterly dispiriting to see men positively turning away from the means of obtaining good crops, and then crying out that they were ruined.  With drains, steam-ploughs, and artificial manure, a farmer might defy the weather.

Of course, continued the professor, it was assumed that the farmer had good substantial buildings and sufficient capital.  The first he could get if he chose; and without the second, without capital, he had no business to be farming at all.  He was simply stopping the road of a better man, and the sooner he was driven out of the way the better.  The neglect of machinery was most disheartening.  A farmer bought one machine, perhaps a reaping-machine, and then because that solitary article did not immediately make his fortune he declared that machinery was useless.  Could the force of folly farther go?  With machinery they could do just as they liked.  They could compel the earth to yield, and smile at the most tropical rain, or the most continuous drought.  If only the voice of science had been listened to, there would have been no depression at all.  Even now it was not too late.