SOLON ROBINSON, 1842 309 



For the Western Farmer's "Own Paper." 

 Odds and Ends — By an Oddity. 



[Chicago Union Agriculturist, 2:24; Mar., 1842] 



[January 22, 1842] 



If we should pick up all the useful odds and ends that 

 we meet with among the ?mpublished items of our life, 

 we might often publish a useful chapter. But whether 

 useful or not, you are welcome to a few of such odds as 

 happen to occur to my mind at present, and I hope that 

 some of your readers will find them useful to their ends. 



Farming tools. — What a miserable policy it is to buy 

 the lowest priced articles, for they are not the cheapest, 

 and yet it seems to prevail to an almost universal extent. 



I can find hundreds of plows now among farmers in 

 this section of country, that are scarcely superior to the 

 ancient Egyptian plow, formed of a crooked stick of 

 wood. 



A few years since, a cargo of rakes were brought to 

 Chicago from Ohio, "fair to look upon," and withal cheap, 

 that for all practical purposes were not worth the cost 

 of freight. 



Pitchforks that are now most commonly found for 

 sale, are only worthy the name of a brittle stick, with a 

 brittle piece of iron stuck in one end of it. The "last 

 sad remains" of thousands of them can now be found 

 upon the premises of those who have mourned over their 

 early decay, instead of mourning over their own folly 

 at purchasing the cheap articles, instead of paying their 

 own village smith for a real good article, and thereby 

 encouraging "domestic manufactures." 



And here let me recommend your Society to offer 

 premiums for all kinds of "home-made" farming tools. 



Matches. — I don't mean to make the girls blush at the 

 idea that I am going to offer them some sage recommen- 

 dations upon this subject, though I cannot help remark- 

 ing that I think it would be well for them to pay a little 

 more attention to this matter, and if some of them would 



