FAllMERS' INSTITUTES. 369 



mower, horse-rako, one two-liorso, and one one-horso cultivator, shovel plow, 

 roller, harrow, sod and stubble i)low and fauning-mill, besides some smuller 

 tools. If he raises clover, as every farmer should, and roots, he will also need 

 a hay-tedder, seed-drill and root cultivator. 



These are all expensive tools, and if he has but fifty or sixty acres under 

 cultivation, the interest on their cost and repairs would nearly, if not quite 

 equal the profit on his crop; yet to compete with the man on a large farm, ho 

 cannot dispense with them. 



It is not necessary that to have these implements to use, each farmer should 

 own all of them, any more than it is he should own a threshing machine to do 

 his threshing. Let two or more men own these machines together, or each 

 own one or more, and exchange one with another. A grain drill can as well be 

 used by three or four farmers, and sow one hundred acres or more every year, 

 as forty acres, and the same with the other tools. 



I am well aware that there are objections to this plan of exchanging tools, 

 but having to some extent given the plan a trial, I believe it practicable. 



There would of course be some loss of time in changing from one farm to 

 another. There would also occur times when more than one would want the 

 tool at the same time; but some soils are earlier or later than others, botli in 

 seed time and in harvest, and by a little systematic arrangement and good feel- 

 ing, the latter objection could be met. When the places are near together, in 

 very busy seasons, one man could, by starting early in the morning, use an 

 implement seven or eight hours before noon, and another the same time in the 

 afternoon. 



I found I could better afford to be at some inconvenience, than not use an 

 implement which I could not afford to own. It might be best in the case of 

 ■mowers and reapers, as they require careful and skillful handling, to let one 

 man own and use them, and pay him by the acre for his work. 



One of the most difficult matters to arrange would be for the difference in 

 wear, on rough and smooth ground. The remedy would be to oblige each man 

 to put his fields in good shape or not use the machine. 



C'aro of Tools. 



In traveling around the State some, this winter, it was a common sight to 

 ^see a wagon, mower, plow, or other implement being wintered out of doors, not 

 for want of room, but through carelessness. 



Farmers generally know, or ought to know, that an implement of any kind, 

 is injured more by being left out over winter, than it would be by careful usage, 

 and shelter when not in use during the summer. 



The man who leaves tools exposed carelessly, is the one who forgets to use 

 oil on the wearing parts, to tighten up nuts, and look after small repairs gen- 

 erally. He has heavy bills at the shop for costly breaks. 



We have at home a set of bob-sleighs that have been in use twentv-three 

 years, except new shoes and an occasional coat of paint, they have had scarcely 

 any repairs, and are still sound. A neighbor who cannot find time to put his 

 sleighs under shelter, is using his third pair in the same length of time. 



Another neighbor has commenced with his third mowing machine within 

 nine years, while I saw another who had just put new sections on a mower he 

 had used ten years, cutting more grass each year than the first, and he told 

 me his machine ran almost as well as ever. He took good care of it when in 

 •use, and kept it in tlie barn when not. The first did just the reverse. 



