AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY. 417 



Altlaougli we cannot claim that farm implements and machines have kept 

 even pace in improvement with other departments of mechanics, yet such pro- 

 gress has been made within the last forty years as to place fanning high in the 

 world's ai't, and has given it a position of influence and respectability second to 

 no other. Much of this is due to the common school, that great utilitarian 

 institution that rubs the rust from dormant genius, and enables the lowest in 

 ijosition by birth to make himself useful, and so carve out his own fortune, or 

 lace his name high on the rolls of his country's fame. 



Until within the last fifty years the culture of the soil made little progress, 

 and farming wore its ancient garb of weary industry, and wiped the sweat 

 from the sun-browned broAV of labor with hands made hard by constant toil. 

 Our first lessons in forming were with the old wooden mould-board plough, the 

 hand sickle, the cradle, and the hand flail. The memory of the latter is still 

 vivid, as with weary blows we shelled out the rattling grain. 



With the axe we helped to carve out a home in the deep forest, and in later 

 days have broken up the matted sod of the wide prairies of the teeming west 

 with the plough. This we began with the old strajj plough ; cut our hay from 

 the prairie sloughs with the hand scythe ; harvested our grain with the cradle 

 and the hand rake ; threshed it with an open cylinder, and hauled it to market 

 with the wagon, over roads Avhose sloughs and streams were unbridged. Since 

 that beginning (a quarter of a century ago) the improvements in farming on 

 the prairie, whether in extent, in new modes of culture, or in new implements, 

 lias no counterpart in the Avorld's history. 



It is not our puq)ose to follow these improvements through all their stages 

 of progress, but to give some idea of the machines and implements now used 

 in the culture of prairie farms, with some suggestions of what we yet need. 



MACHIiVES FOR PREPARING THE SOIL. 



Under this head we shall treat of the common cast-ste«l plough, the gang 

 plough, the steam plough, or rather steam applied to ploughing, the rotary 

 spader, the plough cultivator, the roller, and the harrow. 



THE STEEL CLIPPER PLOUGH. 



These are now made with cast-steel mould-boards, with German steel shares, 

 though cast-steel shares, cast in iron molds, are being tried, but not sufficiently 

 tfl give an opinion of their value. Instead of being sold at a cheaper rate, tlie 

 price has been increased, thus putting them out of competition with the steel 

 clipper, which is now made with the M-eariug pai-ts much thicker than hereto- 

 fore, rendering them very durable. No other than a highly polished steel mould- 

 board plough can be used to advantage on the prairies, and a cast-iron plough, 

 although polished, is not of much value. The steel clipper plough, as now 

 made, may be considered perfect, so far as turning of the soil is concerned ; but 

 in its details there is yet room for improvement. 



A large amoimt of ploughing is done by farmers' sons of the age of fourtee*i 

 years and upwards. To follow the team in the fun-ow, day after day, is very 

 tiresome work, and has the effect of giving the boy a heavy, aAvkward gait, by 

 stiffening the lower limbs — a condition from which he seldom, if ever, recovers. 

 To remedy this, the plough should be made to run on wheels, giving the driver 

 a sulky seat upon which to ride. This can be done without extra power to 

 move it, as the Avheels will relieve an amount of friction equal to the increased 

 weight of the driver and the extra gearing. We then have the increased cost 

 of the implement to offset against the improved mode of handling it. A plough 



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