274 BOARD OF AGRICULTUEE. 



and hauling its load. Our people will not abide anything 

 which will not travel, neither have they time to untwist and 

 straighten the endless ropes and tackle of the Fowler system. 

 The machine must move lightly and easily, and retain its hold 

 on the ground by some peculiar form of its wheels, rather than 

 by its weight, which should in no case exceed two and a half 

 tons, and it should be so constructed as to be compact inform 

 and easily guided, controlled and superintended by men of 

 average intelligence. It should be able, with safety and with- 

 out great effort, to work perpendicularly or horizontally on 

 grades of one in ten. Its maximum cost must not exceed 

 twenty-five hundred dollars, and it must haul at least three 

 ploughs, each turning a furrow eight by twelve inches, and in- 

 vert not less than six acres per day of ten hours, or twelve if 

 running day and night. Its daily cost of superintendence, coal 

 and water should not exceed ten dollars. But even such a ma- 

 chine would not be suited to the present condition of a major- 

 ity of our farms, or our mode of managing them. This was 

 true of them when our machinery for harvestiug hay and grain 

 was so perfected as to be practically and economically useful. 

 When we found that, with the facilities afforded us, we could 

 no longer afford to gather these crops by hand-labor, we in 

 good earnest set about fitting our land to the implements, 

 and soon found a double benefit, — first, in the use of the ma- 

 chines, and then in the improved condition of our fields. So, 

 too, when the steamer, with its gang of ploughs, or other im- 

 plements of tillage, shall be brought to the perfection indi- 

 cated, we can no longer afford to use our present kind of 

 power, and must hasten to prepare our farms and change our 

 mode of farming to receive its benefits. Our fields must be 

 re-arranged in form and size, and with regard to shape and sur- 

 face, as it shall require. Useless trees, stumps and fast stones, 

 whether in the surface or subsoil, must be removed, sloughs 

 filled and open ditclies made into covered drains ; lands, too 

 wet and soft to support the machine, must be solidified by 

 underdrainiug. The miserable, unsightly, costly and useless 

 boundary fences between small farms must be removed, and 

 their tillage so arranged that the steamer may line out its fur- 

 rows from farm to farm, and perfectly accommodate their 

 owners. Where business is so limited as not to justify private 



