No. 112. 1 471 



Let us look back a few years, and see what improvements we 

 have made, in our business of feeding, and furnishing the materi- 

 als for clothing all mankind. 



» 



This generation has seen the introduction of the fanning mill, 

 the grain cradle, the iron plow, the thrashing machine, the horse 

 rake; and now is being introduced into general use a machine 

 that cuts by the power of horses, hay and gr^in ; and from this 

 year may be dated a revolution in tlie practical operations of 

 the harvest and the hay fields. Machines to sow grain with ma- 

 thematical accuracy, either broadcast or in drills, and drawn by 

 animals, are hereafter to relieve us from one of the most difficult 

 of pur labors. 



It was my fortune to be a member of the committee of the 

 State society that this season gave these machines a full trial, and 

 from what I learned in near two weeks devoted to the subject, I 

 say with the fullest confidence that the grain cradle and grass 

 scythes have had their day, and hereafter will onlj^ be required 

 for very small fiirmersj and for cutting roads for the reaper and 

 mower. More than this from calculations made by the commit- 

 tee, it was determined that the mowei* alone would save in a 

 single year, when fully introduced in the United States, three and 

 a half millions of dollars Tlie change from the toil of swinging 

 the gra^^s scythe or the grain cradle from morning till night, 

 through the long and hot days of July and August, to riding 

 upon a comfortable seat upon a sulky drawn by horses, whose 

 government is all that occupies the master's thoughts or muscles, 

 is very great ; and when wc add to thfs that the work is much 

 better done than it can be by hand, we have some of the ele- 

 ments that are necessary lu unrhrstand the value of this marhine. 



The change from carrying a bag uf grain across mellow soils, 

 finely pulverised for seed, and ^catu^ring it broadcast, to riding 

 in a c^jnifurtable arm chair on springs, is very agreeable, as I 

 know by some personal exp( rience of both ways ; and wlicu we 

 add to this that the easy way is U(»t only mutli the best way, a« 

 regards the quality of the work, but that we can d'» about twice 

 the amount in a given time, we see tlio value of the broadcast 

 sowing machine. 



