156 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Poiu- combined macliiue?, -$120 each $480 00 



Half charged to reapmg 240 00 



Half their value for one year $120 00 



Repairs and interest 20 00 



Cost of ndng four combined machines one year 1140 00 



•Or if they are used to cut 1,200 acres of grass, it \y\\\ amount to 1%^ cents per 

 acre. But the difference does not stop here : 



Cost of using machines $140 00 



Eight span of horses, 30 days each, 240 days 240 00 



Four men, 30 days each, 120 days 240 00 



$620 00 



or 51^ cents per acre — nearly double that of the single mower. We think no 

 one can cavil at the above comparisons. We say the above deliberately, after 

 nearly twenty years' experience with the reaper, and fifteen with the combined 

 machine and single mower." 



Without doubt the experience of nearly every farmer substantiates the theoiy 

 iind the experience of Mr, Dunlap, 



From one of the most complex implements we will call your attention to tliat 

 valuable though simple implement, 



The Plough. 



Until late in the present cenlary the wooden mold -board plough was in universal 

 use. By the work of Mr. Jethro Wood of New York the cast iron mold-board 

 was introduced, and a new era in the manufacture plows began. 



Despite the invention of rotary diggers, grubbers, etc., it is not likely that the 

 plow will soon be superseded. Its great leading feature is simplicity. It con- 

 sists substantially of a single part, or is one solid, moving whole, although in its 

 manufacture several parts are united together. This simplicity is of the utmost 

 importance to an implement doing such work, subjected as it is to heavy force 

 and to heavy blows. No complex implement can endure a constant repetition of 

 such blows, and nearly all the complex substitutes no matter how ingenious, can 

 but result in failure. Here are a few models of plows. Doubtless every one of 

 them will work, some better and some worse ; of their peculiar merits I have 

 nothing to say. I have found, however, that nearly every man has a favorite 

 plough, and since that plough does good work for him, though it may not work 

 well for any one else, to him would I recommend that plough alone. 



But I have already said too much, and I must close ; hoping, however, that 

 in a day not far distant, by means of a dynamometer, an instrument which we 

 do not now possess, I shall be able to give you, through the press, some facts 

 regarding the draught and strength of implements which will be of more imme- 

 diate practical utility. 



DISCUSSION. 



J. E. Hendryx, — Did I understand the lecturer to recommend that we use no 

 oil on our machinery? 



