422 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



the saddle, and the lady, behind, upon a pillion. "Wagons were 

 next contrived, but of very rude character, as many of us well 

 remember ; consisting of four wheels, — two very large, and two 

 in front very small, with wooden axletrees, and a canoe-shaped 

 body perched directly upon the axletrees. Add to this a high- 

 backed wooden seat, upon a pair of wooden springs, and you 

 have the pleasure and business carriage, common among us, 

 forty years ago. A little later, came the chaise and the thor- 

 ough-braced wagon, hung upon straps of leather ; and at length, 

 within a few years, the elegant four-wheeled, steel-springed 

 carriages, of varied form, so convenient, beautiful, and easy, let 

 the highways be ever so rough or smooth. There are those 

 living, who have journeyed both in the ancient and modern vehi- 

 cle ; and whose rheumatic joints, if they could speak, would 

 bless the modern carriage-makers. 



But we must not omit the improved implements of husbandry. 

 In no art has there been a more marked advance. New tools 

 have been invented, and old ones improved, until farming has be- 

 come comparatively an easy task. Look at the plough of to- 

 day ; and then at the uncouth, wooden, iron-sided thing, bearing 

 that name, of thirty years ago. What was it ? A heavy wooden 

 beam, with a wooden mould-board, plated with straps of 

 wrought iron, to which was fastened a wrought iron nose of 

 clumsy construction. It was a heavy, cloggy thing to manage, 

 both for man and beiist, and did its work badly. Compare this 

 implement with the cast-iron plough of the present day, and 

 comment is unnecessary. Hoes, too, have received the finish- 

 ing touch of the 'mechanic. Those presented by Messrs. 

 Graves & Hatch, of North Leverett, were the most beautiful 

 and perfect articles of the kind, we ever saw. Formerly, 

 a hoe was a flat, thick, square piece of iron, with a ferrule 

 welded upon one side, into which was fastened a handle ; an 

 unwieldly, tiresome tool, heavily taxing the muscles of the 

 laborer. Now a hoe is just what it should be ; a well-formed, 

 polished steel plate, rightly proportioned and tempered, lithe, 

 light and flexible ; with a well-formed socket for the handle 

 and, when finished, it is an ornament. About the same differ- 

 ence may be observed between other agricultural implements 

 of old and modern times. The pitch-fork and manure-fork, for- 



