352 



ill your mind's eye, the beautiful models of your art, the judgment of 

 their use, the calculation of their value, and you see those marvelous 

 productions of your fruitful soil whicli serve to expand your own views 

 of the extent of the workings of your own skill. These are the delight- 

 ful points in your life, to which the memory recurs with pleasure; 

 they are the sa>fety-%mlves which lot off the pent-up monotony of a coun- 

 try life; and, therefore, we would have you to remember that these ex- 

 lubitions ate yours ; that, whtle you aro their authors and finishers, no 

 one of vou should ever fail to be their friend and patron. 



AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS. 



* Bv THE C0JI>nSSI02,'KR OP AGRICULTURE. 



The prejudice once entertained by the mass of agricultural laborers 

 against the use of labor-saving machinery has been entirely dissipated ; 

 practical experience having taught that the amount to be done is greatly 

 multiplied by tlie facility for doing it, and that the demand f.or laborers 

 continues to increase and wages to be enhanced as the greater amount 

 ^f labor is accomplished. If two bushels of grain be raised where but 

 one was raised before, the area to be cultivated is gi^featly increased, 

 and the farmer is better enabled to compensate the laborer, because the 

 aid of his labor has produced a greater amount of profit. These facts, 

 and the inferences fairly deducible therefrom, have led to the abandon- 

 ment of all opposition to or prejudice against the improved machinery 

 of the farm. 



In the midst of the competition which forces upon the market ma- 

 cldnery of all kinds, each claiming for itself high qualities and superior 

 capacity, it behooves the purchaser to look well and wisely at the sub- 

 ject, and adopt some general principles which should govern his action 

 in the choice he may make. 



To speak of the plow : The same implement will not answer the p|ir- 

 poso in all kinds of soil ; hence, in making choice of one, the fariper 

 should study the character of his soil and the topogi-aphy of his farm, 

 lor the difference in the mechanical structure of plows is essential. While 

 one is short, abrupt and wide in its working parts, and having no teur 

 dency to easy, direct action, another is long, of gradual slope in its mold- 

 board, and its action direct and center-draught. The fitness of each of 

 these must be measured by the character of the work to ba accomplished. 

 The object of plowing being to break up and disintegrate the soil, mak- 

 ing it j)ervious to light, heat, and atmospheric food, it seems to follow 

 that the plow that will best accomplish this object is the one which 

 should be chosen ; pro\ided, however, that in its use it does not require 

 too much power. In any good -plow the principle of direct action, or 

 what is generally termed center-draught, should be found. It consists 

 of fvach a combination of all the parts, to-wit, mold-boar^l, beam, 

 Innd-side, bar, and point, that one shall not counteract the operation 

 of the other more than the necessity of the case requires. A compe- 

 tent obsei'ver, standing in front of a well-constructed plow, will find 

 its beam, mold-board, bar, and land-side, all in mechanical keeping 

 with cacli other, not tending in different directions, requiring great 

 power to overcome leverage without accomplishing any useful conse- 

 quence. The clevis, to which the power is attached, sliould be back at 



