LECTURES AND ESSAYS READ AT INSTITUTES. 307 



meut, when the farmer and the mechanic have so effectually divided opera- 

 tions, according to the most highly approved theories of political economy, 

 — why stir up this ghost of primeval and savage times by discussing a topic 

 like the present? Without doubt the committee who selected this subject for 

 discussion, to-day, had some reason for so doing. Indeed, I think there is 

 some excuse for it, myself. When a man with hundreds, or perhaps thou- 

 sands of dollars, invested in tools and machinery, lives miles from a shop, and 

 has no other conveniences for repairing than sucli as are furnished by a plow 

 wrench, a log-chain, and an axe, there is good excuse for inquiry about it, at 

 least. 



The truth is, the farmer has not advanced to his present position, with ref- 

 erence to the carpenter, the blacksmith, and other tradesmen. He has simply 

 stood still, while the mechanics have done the advancing; and they have 

 advanced their bills into his pocket-book, from twenty-five to one hundred 

 dollars a year beyond the proper limits. Everything else is advancing, but 

 the farmer's shop stands still. His tools to-day are just about the same that 

 his grandfather used when he built the log house. 



Every farmer is to a certain extent a mechanic ; namely, to the extent that 

 he either invents, constructs, or repairs tools, buildings, or machinery, or 

 masters the details of their construction or working. This every farmer is 

 obliged to do, more or less, and to this extent he should have tools and a 

 knowledge of their use. Machinery makes the farmer's business what it is 

 to-day ; machines are increasing and will increase. The stumps are scarcely 

 out of the ground, but the number of complicated implements is great. 

 When clearing has reached its limit, the stumps all gone, and the land leveled 

 and under-drained, they will be doubled, both in number and in power. In 

 a few years every first class farmer will have a steam engine, or some corre- 

 sponding source of power, and many accessory machines. And the time is 

 not far distant when he will find it almost necessary to hire a man at extra 

 wages, who understands mechanical work, or he will have to become 

 acquainted with it himself. 



The struggle for preeminence is daily becoming more fierce in every line of 

 business, and the call is loud for more intense and telling work. The com- 

 ing farmer ought to be a Michael Angelo, and he must, at least, make the 

 most of every opportunity to fit himself for handling his forces, and among 

 these the shop should hold its place. If the middle aged man thinks himself 

 too far gone to be benefited by increasing his accommodations in this line, he 

 would still do well to give his boys a liberal chance. Most boys take readily 

 to the shop for their own amusement, and there is scarcely a more powerful 

 means of education outside the school room. The making of a toy wagon, or 

 a wooden gun, at the age of eight, is worth more to a man than a book of 

 geometry at twenty-five. It has been well said that tools make the mechanic. 

 We might add with equal force, that a shop makes the tools. In fact, with- 

 out some place corresponding to a shop, where they may be safely and conveni- 

 ently kept and used, tools, though not useless, generally become nearly so. 



On every farm where boys are growing up, or where the proprietor or super- 

 intendent has any taste or ability for mechanical work, or for employing his 

 hired men in this way, there ought to be a wood shop, a blacksmith shop, and 

 I might add harness shop. It is evident that a farmer cannot afford to fur- 

 nish a shop so completely as one whose business is all done there. Judgment 

 must be used in deciding whether to have these things at all, and to what 

 extent. 



