

CHAPTER IV. 



FARM IMPLEMENTS. 



HE amount of capital now invested in farm implements in 

 fiNB I the United States, bj a reasonable estimate, exceeds five 

 (^A^ hundred million dollars. No argument therefore is 



^ needed to show the importance of its being well invested. 

 The difference in economy, between working at a disadvantage 

 with poor tools, and the use of the modern appliances to lighten 

 labor and save time, is clear to every farmer, of even ordinary 

 comprehension. 



There was a time in the earlier history of this courtrj'-, and it 

 (jontinued with little change to within the memory of persons 

 still living, when labor was cheap, when strong limbs and the 

 power of endurance were the requisites chiefly sought for in the 

 man on the farm, and when his work was paid for as so much 

 brute physical force. Thought and skill found higher rewards 

 in other callings, and the practical farmer was held to be suffi- 

 ciently well informed if he was able to hold a plow, to mow, to 

 sow, and to reap. 



When labor, or the physical force necessary to carry on the 

 simple operations of the farm, could be obtained so easily, a' 

 limited variety of implements was enough to satisfy the necessi- 

 ties of the times. 



It was the custom for years, in some parts of the country, for 

 any one owning a plow to go about and do the plowing for 

 a considerable extent of territory. A town often paid a bounty 



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