PEEFACE. V 



with many of our best mechanics, and I have not, as yet, been 

 able to detect anything in this work which does not coincide with 

 the most approved views and practices for manufacturing and 

 for putting tools in order. 



The figures of tools and implements have been drawn with my 

 own pencil, and I have penned nothing which has not been well 

 tested, and have introduced no tools, or implements, which can 

 be considered of doubtful utility. The reader will find about 

 every tool which is represented in the following pages and 

 scores of others also in my possession, which are in prime order. 



The chapter on fencing and fence tools, a portion of which has 

 been re-written, was published in the volume of Trans, of the 

 N. Y. State Agricultural Society for 1858 ; and it is a source of 

 great chagrin to me that I did not have the proof-sheets in time 

 to correct the numerous typographical errors, and to place some 

 of the cuts right side up, and others in their appropriate places. 

 Some of them were placed on the side, and some topsy turvy, 

 while several of them, instead of being inserted where they were 

 described, under their appropriate heads, were placed in another 

 part of the chapter, where they were simply alluded to. / grin 

 and bear it as well as any one ought to. Some of the cuts were 

 not engraved like the original drawings, and have since been re- 

 engraved. 



Reference is frequently made to subjects in another volume, 

 which will follow this in a succession of paragraphs and illustra 

 tions, which will relate more particularly to the cultivation of the 

 soil and raising crops. 



There are ten ways of performing most of the operations of 

 the farm ; there is a right way, and a wrong way ; an easy way, 

 and a hard or very laborious way ; a skillful, and an awkward 



