16 INTRODUCTION. 



A FARMER SHOULD BE A GOOD MECHANIC, 



theoretically, if he is not practically. There are so many branches 

 of mechanical operations connected with farming, such as making 

 farm gates, and fences, harrows, field-rollers, and tools of every 

 description, and repairing old ones, and putting edge tools 

 in order, and such like, that he who must necessarily depend 

 entirely on some one else to perform every little job, cannot 

 expect to succeed in farming operations like him who will accus 

 tom himself to handle mechanical tools with dexterity. More 

 than one-half of our country mechanics, who work at their trade 

 for a livelihood, are incompetent to perform a difficult job, in a 

 neat and workmanlike manner, without a foreman. For this 

 reason, if for no other, a farmer should be a good mechanic, in 

 order to give proper directions how a piece of work should be 

 performed, or whether or not it is perfect or faulty after it is 

 finished. 



A FARMER SHOULD BE A MACHINIST. 



Now that so many new machines are being manufactured and 

 introduced for performing the labors of the farm, a farmer needs 

 the skill and discernment of an ingenious machinist, in order to 

 understand whether a machine has been manufactured according 

 to the most approved mechanical principles or not, and to detect 

 at a glance any imperfection in its construction (see FITTING UP 

 MACHINERY, in the next vol.) ; and in case a machine fails in con 

 sequence of little imperfections in its manufacture, to be able to 

 repair it himself, or to direct another to do it, in a workmanlike 

 manner. 



A FARMER SHOULD BE A GOOD ENGINEER. 



Agriculture now is ranked among the arts and sciences of the 

 first order. Indeed, the cultivation of the soil has been not im 

 properly styled the " mother of arts." Perhaps in no other single 

 art and science can there be found such a variety of simple and 

 complex, cheap and expensive, tools and implements, as in agri 

 culture. Consequently, in order to be able to work, or manage, 



