1882.] TOOLS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC. 313 



EVENING SESSION. 



THE ADAPTATION OF AGRICULTURE TO THE IM- 

 PROVEMENTS IN IMPLEMENTS, MACHINERY, AND 

 TRANSPORTATION. 



BY PROFESSOR WM. H. BREWER, OF YALE COLLEGE. 



The adaptation of Agriculture to the modern improvements in 

 tools, implements, machinery, and transportation, is the greatest 

 industrial problem just now before the world. It is the prime 

 cause of a serious disturbance felt in many countries of Europe, 

 and it is a subject of special interest here in Connecticut. 



Inasmuch as civiHzed communities can only be fed by agricul- 

 ture, it must be the most universal, as well as the oldest of indus- 

 tries, and of necessity must go on in some form in every civilized 

 country of any considerable extent, whether the other industries 

 flourish or not. Their prosperity is dependent on its methods and 

 its possibilities, because it must supply the food of the people. 

 All the food derived from the fisheries and hunting, is so small 

 in amount compared with that produced from the soil, that in this 

 connection it may be ignored; and it is fair to- say that the food 

 of civilization depends upon Agriculture and the methods of trans- 

 porting its products. 



Prom the dawn of history, down to within about a hundred years, 

 the art of Agriculture remained practically stationary, that is, it 

 made no essential progress. During the last half of the last century 

 it began to improve, and the rate of progress, slow at first, increased, 

 until during the present century, the applications of modern sci- 

 ence, and modern invention have more than once revolutionized 

 the methods of the farm. And going along with this, new meth- 

 ods of transportation combined with modern sentiments pertaining 

 to trade and commerce, have also revolutionized all the conditions of 

 agricultural competition, and these complete revolutions have 

 taken place in much less than a single lifetime. Indeed, any 

 twenty years of the present century have seen much greater 

 changes in this industry, than any twenty centuries have before, 

 from the very dawn of history down to the time of our own 

 national independence. 



Certain conditions pertaining to America, have made the 

 changes here more rapid than in other countries, and on such a 



