350 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



amount of six dollars per acre in value of labor in cultivation, has added, on 

 an average, fifteen dollars per acre to the product of his wheat crop ; and this, 

 on a soil already well cultivated, and producing twice the State average of 

 bushels of wlieat per acre. 



In cultivation we can show great progress for a few years past, and for the 

 ease with which it can be done, we are greatly indebted to the inventors and 

 manufacturers of agricultural implements. We now have a good tool or 

 implement for nearly every operation on the farm. Twelve years after the 

 lauding of the pilgrims there was not a plow in the vicinity of Boston, and 

 the farmers broke up their land with hoes and other hand implements ; and in 

 1637, there were but 3? plows in the whole province, and these such as no one 

 would think it possible to use at the present time, and this after fifty-six cen- 

 turies of the world's history, as we record it. The improvement was very slow 

 till 1819, when Jethro Wood invented his plow, and you who knew the plows 

 of even thirty years ago, mark the progress to the present steel or chilled-iron 

 plow, ground and polished as it comes from the shop, in the place of the rough 

 casting that used to take from one day to a week to become "scoured" and 

 smooth for work ; all this time trying to the temper of the plowman and 

 worrying his team. 



We have leaped in one lifetime from the sickle to the self-binder; from the 

 flail to the steam thresher, and it looks at times as if we had reached the very 

 acme of perfection ; but the inventor is tireless and improvement still con- 

 tinues. Doubtless, in the future, steam and even electricity will furnish 

 motive power for many operations in agriculture. In farm implements we are 

 ahead of any other nation. In England there are many good tools and imple- 

 ments, but they lack the lightness combined with strength that our tools for 

 hand use possess. 



The Germans are often quoted as possessing many elements of progress in 

 agriculture. They are thorough in cultivation, saving of fertilizers, and care- 

 ful feeders of stock. They are advanced in support of agricultural schools, 

 and in scientific investigation in all matters pertaining to agriculture, but a 

 gentleman who is well known here, and who has lately traveled in that coun- 

 try. President Welch, of the Iowa Agricultural College, in a recent letter 

 says : "1 found the Germans using the same kind of tools that their fathers 

 had used before them, and their grandfathers, and for generations back." 



In Holland, the seat of very early civilization, a country rich and prosper- 

 ous, the farmers seldom leave their provinces, and are very slow to receive or 

 adopt new methods or new tools. They still have no thills or tongues to their 

 farm wagons, and cut their grass by hand. 



True, all that is new is not improvement, and the American farmer by his 

 readiness to accept new things is often wof ully humbugged ; yet this fact opens 

 the way for great improvements which would not otherwise be adopted. It is 

 often remarked that new and improved tools and machinery to stock a farm 

 are costly and require too much capital invested, but the best farmer will still 

 find it more profitable to procure a full complement of tools and implements 

 and invest still farther in providing a place to keep them when not in use, 

 always in good repair and ready for use, or to lend to his less thrifty neigh- 

 bors; the latter use does not pay a profit. A single day's use in just the 

 nick of time will often save an amount equal to the interest on the investment 

 for one year. 



The three great working elements which enter into profitable farming are 

 cultivation, manuring, and drainage. With these combined the industrious 



