FARMERS' INSTITUTES 371 



^vholo farm will be in grain. A grain drill and reaper are bought. Then 

 wheat becomes clieap, and grass and corn take its place. A new set of imple- 

 ments are required, and tlie drill and reaper lie idle. The next move may 

 be cows, sheep, or pigs, requiring another outlay, and another set of tools are 

 laid by. 



Mixed husbandry, that is, raising some stock, some grain, etc., with some 

 rotation and one or two leading cro})S, according to soil, location, and market, 

 will, as a rule, prove the most profitable. The aim should be to adopt one line 

 of farming and stick to it, thereby avoiding the changing of implements, or 

 having tools that would not be used. 



Buying Tools. 



The work for the summer should be planned during the winter, and if any 

 tools are needed then is the time to decide what to get. If a mower is required 

 it is a poor plan to wait till the grass is ready to cut, and then go to an agent 

 and take his advice in regard to the kind of machine to get. 



If a man has never used a mower let him go to some farmer, who has one, 

 and ask him to point out its weak parts, and find where it has been broken, 

 and how, notice where the most wear is, ask if it runs easy, and is convenient 

 to handle. Let him find out all the owner knows about the machine, and how 

 he would have it changed, if he could ; and then go to some man who has a 

 mower of a different make, and find out all he can about that. Let him 

 examine all the mowing machines he can find time to, and get all the informa- 

 tion he can from their owners, paying especial attention to the weak points, 

 and considering where and why one machine is better than another. 



A little spare time in the winter spent in this way will give a man a pretty 

 good idea of what a mowing machine should be, and he won't have to rely 

 upon the statements of showy circulars or smootli-tongued agents for informa- 

 tion as to what to buy. 



If farmers would only consult each other before buying any implement, and 

 find what others have learned by practical experience, there would not be so 

 many thousands of dollars wasted on poor and worthless implements. 



We have in the college, in the museum, a lot of models sent from the patent 

 office, at Washington, and among the lot are, perhaps, a hundred models of 

 cultivators, plows, and harrows, of which not more than ten are of any prac- 

 tical value, and I could find but one in the whole lot that I would consider 

 worth buying, to use. 



There are thousands of farm implements made and sold every 3'ear that are 

 worth little or nothing to the farmer. Some are made merely to sell, and some 

 because the manufacturer does not know what is required. While we have 

 great sympathy for the innocent and honest farmer, Avho has given his hard 

 earned dollars for a worthless implement or patent-right swindle, yet we can't 

 forget that "it takes two to make a bargain." We may always expect that 

 there will be rogues to sell just so long as there are men foolish enough to buy. 



The "grange" has done a good work for tlie farmer, in bringing the pro- 

 ducer and consumer nearer together. The agent does not get one-half of the 

 price paid for implements as he did formerly. Still there is too great a differ- 

 ence between the actual cost of making farm implements and the price the far- 

 mer pays for them. We must have them cheaper. 



The next work for the "grange" and farmers club, is to study what to 

 buy, and how to use them. What we need is not more, but better implements. 

 We must buy only those that are adapted to the work, and made to last, and do 



