XL. 



FAKM IMPLEMENTS. 



A GOOD workman, it is said, does not quarrel with 

 his tools which, if true, I judge is due to the fact 

 that he generally manages to have good ones. To 

 work hard throughout a long day under a burning 

 sun, is sufficiently trying, without rendering the labor 

 doubly repugnant by the use of ill-contrived, imper- 

 fect, inefficient implements. 



The half-century which nearly bounds my recollec- 

 tion has witnessed great improvements in this respect. 

 The Plow, mainly of wood, wherewith my father 

 broke up his stony, hide-bound acres of New-Hamp- 

 bhire pebbles and gravel, in my early boyhood, would 

 now be spurned if offered as a gift to the poorest and 

 most thriftless fanner among us ; and the Hoes which 

 were allotted to us boys in those days, after the newer 

 and better had been assigned to the men, would be 

 rejected with disdain by the stupidest negro in Vir- 

 ginia. Though there is still room for improvement, 

 we use far better implements than our grandfathers 

 did, with a corresponding increase in the efficiency 

 of our labor ; but the cultivators of Spain, Portugal, 



(37) 



