Ki'lirunry :;5. lOlS 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



Agricultural Implements 



When farmers made their own tools, a few generations 

 ago, they procured the best wood within their reach. They 

 knew^ the value of good wood, and when they selected it 

 for their own use, they \vould take nothing that was not 

 the best procurable. In the hardwood region the farmer 

 seldom found it necessary to go beyond the borders of his 

 own land to get w^hat he wanted. He wanted oak beams 

 and oak handles for his plows; ash handles for his rakes, 

 hoes, shovels and pitchforks; locust, persimmon, hickory, 

 or maple teeth for his horserake; dogwood, ash, sourwood, 

 service, hickory for his scythe snath; ash or hickory flail 

 handles and black gum or some other of the gums for flail 

 sw^apes. When he had made all these tools he was about 

 through with the list. Except the plow and the horserake, 

 tools were seldom made for power other than the elbow 

 grease applied by the farmer himself or his hired man. 



Those w^ere the days when farming was done on a 

 small scale. Railroads were not in existence, or at least 

 were few and short. There w^as no inducement for the 

 farmer to raise more than he could use or sell in his neigh- 

 borhood. Transportation was slow and expensive, and 

 every farmer looked out for himself the best he could and 

 seldom formed associations with his neighbors for mutual 

 benefit. 



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