1882.] TOOLS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC. 321 



rude wooden plows of their time, sowed the grain by hand, cut it 

 by hand, bound the sheaves by hand, threshed it with a flail, win- 

 nowed it with the hand fan or the hand fanning-mill, as all the 

 world did. So much hand labor was necessary that, even had 

 means of transportation then been as good as now, the farmer of 

 Illinois, Dakota, or California would not have had the enormous 

 advantage he has now; he could plow a little more ground, but 

 after that, in the sowing, harvesting, etc., he could work no faster 

 than his eastern competitor. It is indeed no wonder that in early 

 times bread-stuff was so precious as it was. One is struck, on look- 

 ing over the early Colonial records, how the Assembly (or Court) 

 would be applied to for the privilege of sending half a dozen bar- 

 rels of meal to Boston, or somewhere else outside the Colony. 

 Some of the applications were for as small a quantity as two bar- 

 rels. Now ships are loaded at San Francisco or Astoria with wheat 

 which has already traveled hundreds of miles by land, to still go 

 five-eighths of the distance around the earth. 



Then, the wooden plow scratched an acre a day; now, gang 

 plows will plow ten acres ; then, tools were made on the farm and 

 ironed at the neighboring blacksmith shop; now, they are bought, 

 from the great manufacturers in the larger towns. Then flax and- 

 wool were dressed, spun, woven, and the fabrics made up in the 

 farmer's family, even the buttons made at home; now clothing is 

 bought ready made, and made by machine. By all this change 

 some New England industries have been entirely destroyed, other 

 new ones made; but agriculture cannot be destroyed, it has simply 

 shaped itself to the new conditions. 



"We may class the improvements which have revolutionized agri- 

 culture into seven great classes, viz. : 



1. Improvement in the tools and implements of the farm; 

 They are more effective, and perform more with less human labor, 

 and are more specialized. 



2. Machines for the gathering of crops and preparing them for 

 the market. 



3. Methods and facilities for transporting and handling agri- 

 cultural products. 



4. Appliances and methods for the better management of live 

 stock and the utilizing of animal products. All dairy apparatus 

 would be classed here. 



5. A better knowledge of the laws pertaining to the improve^ 

 ment of varieties of cultivated crops and breeds of animals. 



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