FOR PROMOTING AGRICULTURE 139 



ing a cannon, "since a cannon is a fire engine." The 

 doctor did no violence to the English language, nor did 

 the Massachusetts General Court of the year 1655. 

 The following was their enactment: 



May 23, 1655. Itt is ordered that Joseph Jencks, 

 sen'., and his assignes, only, shall haue libertje 

 graunted to them to make that engine the sajd Jencks 

 hath proposed to this Court for the more speedy cut- 

 ting of grasse, for seven yeares, and that no inhabitant 

 or other person within this jurisdiction during that 

 tjme shall make or vse any of that kind of engine with- 

 out license first obtajned from the sajd Joseph Jencks, 

 on the poenalty of five pounds for euery such engine 

 so made or vsed, to be recouered at any Court in this 

 jvrisdiction by the sajd Joseph Jencks, sen^, or his 

 assignes. 



All uncertainty as to the meaning of the status is 

 cleared up by the author of the History of Lynn, who 

 states that Jenks was an inhabitant of that place, and 

 made an improvement in the scythe. The historian 

 adds: "This improvement consisted in lengthening the 

 blade, making it thinner, and welding a square bar on 

 the back, to strengthen it, as in the modern scythe. 

 Before this, an old English blade was short and thick, 

 like a bush scythe." 



The trustees regarded the result of the competition 

 of 1855, on the whole, with satisfaction. It showed 

 what improvements were necessary, and that no in- 

 herent difficulties existed. They say in the official 

 report that "rough land covered with stones, hilly and 

 broken surfaces and reclaimed bogs were all brought 

 under the dominion of the machine;" also, that "the 

 farmer will gain in the end by putting his field into 

 better condition for the use of the machine, with a 



