357 



told with any degree of certaiuty wheu it is that the vermin are de- 

 stroyed, but it is certainly at all times and periods when they are in the 

 egg and embryo. Let it not be said that tins eosts too much labor. It 

 is labor most profitably spent. 



Little need be said with regard to the hay-rake, for its universal use 

 is sufficient evidence of its value as a labor-saving implement. With a 

 single horse and boy it will do the work which once required eight men. 

 The steel-tooth rake has been greatly improved and perfected by the 

 lever for discharging the gathered hay, instead of the old mode by the 

 foot. 



The thrasher is a machine necessarily used upon the farm, but does 

 not alwaj'S belong to it. The one to be spoken of is an implement of 

 the farm, which thrashes but does not winnow and prepare grain for 

 the market, and one which every farmer should own. It is a horse- 

 power machine capable of thrashing about' one hundred bushels of 

 wheat per day. The power requires four horses, and the machine five 

 persons to supply and feed it and remove and put away the straw. It 

 is to be distinguished from the thrasber which winnows the grain and 

 imperfectly prepares it for the market at the speed of three or four hun- 

 dred buihels per day, and involving the employment of a corresponding 

 number of hands. The use of the one is an operation of the farmer him- 

 self, the other that of a person whose business it is to thrash for others. 

 The one thrashes the grain as you want it, and allows the storage of the 

 straw and chaff" for future use, such as food and bedding for cattle and 

 the consequent making of manure. The other thrashes the whole crop 

 at once, rendering necessary the immediate disposal of it, and givlHg you 

 au amount of straw which you have no place to put but into stacks or 

 the barn-yard, or to be otherwise wasted, for such a quantity cannot be 

 converted at once into manure, but is greatly wasted upon the desert air. 

 But the farmer's own machine may be used, if properly constructed, for 

 another useful -purpose, that of cutting up his corn-fodder. Fodder- 

 cutters, as they are constructed, do not answer well the purpose for 

 which they were designed. They are not quite equal, in point of strength, 

 either in their construction or cutting-knives, to the work required of 

 them. The spikes of the thrasher may be so constructed as to answer 

 both the purposes of thrashing and cutting. They may be made two 

 inches wide, one edge preserving the rotundity of the spike, while the 

 other may have the sharpness of a knife, and by reversing the cylinder 

 you present the knife-edge to cut the fodder into shreds, or the spike- 

 edge to thrash the grain. 



Cultivators are as various in their construction as the minds of men. 

 To destroy grass and weeds and loosen the ground between growing 

 plants is the work they have to do, and the simplicity of it points uner- 

 ringly to theimplementwhich is best adapted to the quality of soil where 

 it is to be used. If the work is to be done with one horse, there is no 

 implement that will do it better tlian the old-fashioned double shovel- 

 plow. It has the advantage of being always in hand, to be readily 

 guided to the point where its work will be most efficient. If two horses 

 be used, there are other implements which will do the work much more 

 speedily by straddling the row and operating upon both sides of it. 



This treatise upon the subject of agricultural implements is induced 

 by a desire to direct the farmer to the choice of those which are best 

 adapted to his particular purpose, and to point out to him the princi- 

 ples which enter into the consideration of the subject, thereby guarding 

 him against the plausiljle tlicories and deceptive appearances which so 

 often surround it. 



