AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS AND MACHINES. 399 
little has been added to the original idea, and it is under this influence 
that farmers have reached the high standard now presented in culti- 
vators. 
Thirty years ago, aman with a hand-hoe could, by the aid ef a horse and 
plow, for plowing furrows between the rows of corn, cultivate an acre in 
aday. Now, with a span of horses, and one of our best riding cultiva- 
tors, fifteen acres can be accomplished, and this with almost as mueh 
ease and comfort as a day’s journey in a buggy. 
In looking back over the last thirty years, and tracing from year to 
year the improvements that have been made in this implement, to more 
perfectly adapt it to the cultivation of maize, or Indian corn, it would 
seem that this machine had almost reached perfection, and that there’ 
is litthke more that is desirable. Looking at the subject from another 
stand-point, however, we are forced to acknowledge that the field for 
advancement is constantly enlarging, and that every new improvement 
introduced only widens the area for others. y ; 
Let any one trace the successive steps that have been taken, from 
the initiative idea of Jethro Tull, in the year 1701, to the present time, 
and consider in this connection the liberal policy of. the Government in 
granting protection for improvement in art, and he will be no longer in- 
doubt as to the cause of the issue of so many patents for improvements 
in this and kindred inventions. 
It has already been said that different soils require different modi- 
fications of implements for their management. Now, a farmer who 
purchases a cultivator that is well adapted to a ight, sandy soil, while 
is own may be heavy, tenacious, or stony, soon finds that the machine, 
in the form of its shares, and perhaps in some other details, is not exactly 
what he desires, and in order to improve his machine he makes 
changes in this‘ or that particular, and finds its work more satisfactory, 
and, believing that he can benefit the public as well as himself by his 
ingenuity, applies for and obtains a patent for his invention. Others 
follow his example in an effort to improve their agricultural machinery, 
and thus little by little is added to the great and constantly acenmula- 
ting store of knowledge; and it is in this way that inventions grow 
up from small beginnings to the highest state of perfection hitherto 
attained. 
It should not be understood by this remark that every alleged im- 
provement is valuable, There are many for which letters-patent have 
been issued that are scarcely heard from after their unobtrusive birth. 
It is only by actual test in the field that their value can be established. 
And again there may be, and no doubt are, many meritorious inven- 
tions that are never put toa practical test, simply from the pecuniary 
inability of the inventor to bring them into public notice. It would, 
perhaps, be thought invidious should we attempt to draw a comparison 
between cultivators still operating under unexpired patents with older 
inventions. We will therefore merely give an example of the earlier 
conceptions in this department in our own country, and leave the sub- 
ject of comparison to the reader. (Plate 16.) 
We cannot leave this branch of our subject without allusion to another 
fact that seems to need some explanation. It is sometimes said that 
patents are refused for meritorious inventions. This is undoubtedly 
true, at least in some cases. Original inventors are not always the first 
inventors. For example, the straddle-row cultivator was invented as 
long ago as 1701, but this fact may have remained unknown even to the 
present day to a great majority of inventors of agricultural implements 
in this country. In such a case a broad ‘claim must, of necessity, be 
