96 [Assembly 



With these views, your committee entered upon their duties, 

 and arranged a system for determining the mechanical principles 

 combined in the machines presented for trial, in order to under- 

 stand more clearly, and better to exhibit to our farming people 

 the power possessed by these machines to overcome or divide re- 

 sistances with economy of time and labor, in the accomplishment 

 of the work of a farm. 



This system embraced the determination of the power applied, 

 the quantity of force required for giving motion as well to the 

 machine alone, as also to effect perfect work when in full action, 

 the speed required or used ; the force or power consumed to per- 

 form a specific amount of work ; the quality of the work accom- 

 plislied ; the condition of the surface acted on ; the construction 

 and liability to wear, and other details which are presented under 

 the various divisions of this report. 



This system seemed important and interesting, not only for the 

 advantage of agriculturists, but also for the mechanics of our 

 country. Your committee indulge the belief that this trial of 

 machines and implements will present to the farmer a reliable 

 authority for a due appreciation of such objects when presented 

 for his use. It must be conceded that great improvement has 

 been observed within the last five years in the construction of 

 plows and a few other farm implements, and much ingenuity has 

 been displayed in other and more complex machinery for the 

 farm, yet it is equally true, there is an absence of a sufl&cient 

 knowledge of the essential principles of construction and applica- 

 tion of agricultural implements. 



It is no discredit to our artizans or farmers to say that with all 

 the knowledge we have attained, our requirements are very far 

 from being met or satisfied, and that the rudiments of agricul- 

 tural machinery are rarely suJfficiently understood by either far- 

 mers or mechanics. The many thousand persons assembled at 

 the Geneva trials, afford a conclusive evidence that this first ef- 

 fort of the State Society to make apparent the value, or the 

 imperfections of implements and machinery, to the eye of all 

 interested in their uses and application, will cause greater atten- 

 tion to paechanical principles, lessening the powers of draft, and 



