SECRETARY'S REPORT. 69 



like an old almanac, costly macliincry, wliicb. has douc, and may 

 yet do excellently well, and he will reply, "many a time." His 

 competitors have introduced such as will accomplish work bet- 

 ter and cheaper, and he would be undersold and ruined, if he 

 did not avail himself of every improvement as early as possible. 

 He could not afford to do otherwise. 



Much has already been accomplished in this direction, on be- 

 half of agriculture. If any were skeptical on this point, a fair 

 exposition of the implements of a half century since, and beside 

 them, those now in use, would be perfectly convincing. The old 

 bull nose plough, well remembered for its convulsive struggles 

 in the soil, and with its holder, would be found replaced by the 

 cast-iron plough, with its gracefully curved and well polished 

 moldboard, passing smoothly and easily through the soil, scarcely 

 needing one to hold it; by sub-soilers too, and deep tillers. 

 The old swing flail would find its representatives in many and 

 varied threshing machines ; the grain riddle, in winnowing ma- 

 chines, fanning mills, and separators; the back-aching sickle, in 

 •reapers of ingenious construction ; the hand hoe and rake, in horse 

 hoes and horse rakes; and so on through the whole; the one, a 

 scanty list, and light, scarcely sufficing to fill a cart ; while the 

 other, in full assemblage, might load a train of railway cars. 



But though much has been done, much more reniaias to be 

 done. The best plough now known, consumes at least two- 

 thirds of the moving force to overcome friction and cohesion. 

 Here is a v/ide field for improvement; so wide, indeed, that 

 ■coupled with the fact, that it does some harm by compressing 

 the under-soil, as well as great good to what is above, in loosen- 

 ing and pulverizing, that it is by no means certain that it may 

 not some day be superseded as an instrument for the pulveriza- 

 tion of the soil. There is also great room for improvement in 

 our newer implements, as the mowing machines, which, thus far, 

 either through inherent fault of construction, or fault of materi- 

 als or of workmanship, or, more likely, of all combined, have, thus 

 far, failed, in some degree, to supply the want it was intended 

 to meet. Yet progress is onward, and rapidly, too. It is by no 

 means true that every new invention is an improvement, or that 

 some highly lauded patents may not prove arrant humbugs, yet 

 this no more proves it good policy to reject all, than it would 



