FARMERS' REGISTER. 



335 



excellencies or defects of those now in use, or be i 

 able to decide intelligently upon the claims of new ' 

 inventions, without a knowledge of these priiici- 1 

 pies. Besides their uselLiI applications in the busi- 

 ness of agriculture, a knowledge of the principles 

 of mechanics will be tbund of service in many of 

 the ojjeratioiis of rural economy. I will nitMition 

 an instance which occurred witliin my own know- 

 ledge. A lanuer purchased a beel, agreeing to 

 pay a certain price per pound net weight. Jjeing 

 unexpectedly called from home, he directpd that 

 during his absence, the beef should be killed, cut 

 up, its weight ascertained, and thai then it should 

 be sailed. W hen he returned, he Ibund, on adding 

 up the weight of the several quarters, that some 

 mistake must have been made, as the sum was 

 much mure than it was possible the beef could 

 weigh. On inquiring into the matter, he dis- 

 covered that the weight belonging to one pair of 

 steelyards had been used wiih anoilier pair; the 

 steelyards used being made lor a 7lbs. weight, 

 whilst the weight used was one of 5ibs. It was 

 impossible to reweigh the beef, as it had been 

 cut up, and packed away; so that the only alter- 

 native left him, was either to pay lor beef which 

 he had not received, or else to correct the error by 

 calculation. The person in question was liimi- 

 liar with the mechanical principles of the lever, 

 and by applying them to the case belbre him, easi- 

 ly ascertained the true weight of the beef The 

 condition of equilibrium in the case of the lever, 

 is, that the weight multiplied into its distance from 

 the lulcrum, shall equal the power multiplied into 

 its distance from the fulcrum. From a considera- 

 tion of this principle it will be seen, that the true 

 weight was five-sevenths of the weight given by 

 the 5 lbs. weight. 



Another case, illustrating this same point, has 

 come to my knowledge within a few months. A 

 iariner undertook to have a Ibrcing pump construct- 

 ed, to raise water from a spring in a valley to his 

 house, situated on a hill ; the pump to be woiked 

 by water power. When every thing was complet- 

 ed, on attempting to mtike the pump work, he 

 Ibund I hat his power was insufficient. To remedy 

 this evil, he had the whole taken to pieces, and 

 every thing constructed anew and on a smaller 

 scale, excepting the water power machinery. 

 Had he been lamiliar with the principles of hy- 

 drostatics, he would have known th;U the same 

 object might have been accomplished by simply 

 replacing the piston of his pump, and of course 

 the part of the log in which it worked, with one 

 of smaller dimensions ; whilst the remaining '200 

 feet of pipe for there was about that lensjih ol pipe 

 between the pump and his house) might have re- 

 mained the same, and in liict, the larger pipe wouM 

 have answered better than the smaller one with 

 which it was replaced, siiire the fiiction of the 

 moving column of water would have been diminish- 

 ed by the interposition of astratum of fluid between 

 it and the sides of the pipe. Precisely such cases 

 as these may not occur to a firmer in the whole 

 course of his hie, but unless his life be very dil- 

 ferent from that of most men, many cases will oc- 

 cur, in which a knowledge of mechanics will be 

 equally useful ; and on this account he should, il 

 possible, render himself lamiliar with those prin- 

 ciples. 



A fifth stndj', which should be embraced in a 

 pourse of agricultural educaiion, is ihtit of the 



more simple mathematics, including arithmetic, al- 

 gebra, geumelry, trigonometry and surveying. — 

 One reason why these should be studied, is, mat 

 without a knowledge of them, it is impossible to 

 pursue the study of mechanical philosophy or 

 chemistry with any |)ieasure or lu much advantage. 

 Aiiuihcr, and the principal reason is, that they ad- 

 mit of an immediaie and [)ractical application to the 

 business of agriculture. And here let me mention 

 in particular, a thorough knowledge of the theory 

 and use of numbers. Il a larnier would know how 

 his business is progressing, he must keep accounts 

 and make many calculations. The loliowing re- 

 marks of Mr. Hawkins, published in the liritish 

 Quarierly Journal oi' Agriculture, and copied into 

 the Farmers' Register lor Oct. 1824, place this 

 matter in its proper light : " In a business embra- 

 cing so many particulars as agriculture, it in essen- 

 tial to be able lo distinguish the profit and loss up- 

 on each. Nothing is more easy or more common, 

 than lor a man who keeps no accounts, to conti- 

 nue lor a series of years to lose money on some 

 particular department without knowing it ; or, 

 which is almost as bad, to employ his time and 

 capital in less profitable speculations, when he 

 might have applied them to such as were more 

 so. A larmer grows many kinds of crops and 

 keeps several species of animals — breeding some 

 and buying others — and uses many kinds of ma- 

 nure. Assuming that he has a general profit of 

 10 per cent, at the end of the year, how is he to 

 tell whetlier all the branches of his business have 

 contributed raieably to this result, unless he keeps 

 accounts '? The cost of one acre of corn, lor ex- 

 am[)le, is compounded of rent, tithes, taxes, the 

 cost of seed and tillage, horses' keep and man's 

 keep, rates for the poor, the church and the high- 

 ways; — and so with every other crop. Suppose 

 now that in the case of his corn crop, all the items 

 of expenditure accurately set down shall amount 

 lo £5 15s. per acre, and that the crop shall sell 

 lor £5 10s. Upon 40 acres, .here would be a 

 loss of £ 10 a year ; but without setting down the 

 several items which compose the cost, and adding 

 them together, how is a man to tell wiiliin 5s. how 

 much his acre of corn cost him I He may know 

 that it cost him about £5 or £6, but in this very 

 about, lies the essence of the mischief If the sell- 

 ing price were £5 10s. the former supposition 

 would give a profit and the latter a loss of £20 a 

 year; — and thus any man may, and many men 

 do, continue to the end of their lives, carrying on 

 branches of business by which they lose money 

 unconsciously. It is by a few shillings per acre, 

 gained here and saved there, ihat a larmer makes 

 { his profits. Il is no exaggerated estimate to sup- 

 I pose that these petty items may often make a 

 i difi'erence of 10 per cent, at the year's end; and 

 ihatso one man may make a living on the same 

 larm where another woulil li.iil." These remnrks 

 will not apply in all their minutifc, to the business 

 of agriculture in this country ; but in their general 

 principles, they apply alike to the agriculture of 

 every country; and ihey set belbre us, in its true 

 light, the importance of a lamiliar acquaintance 

 with figures, to the farmer. Many other illustra- 

 tions might be given, but it is deemed unnecessary ; 

 lor il is not by tlie end less muliiplicai ion of instances 

 ihat the aitenlion can be arrested or convictirn 

 produced, but by a iv.w vvell-seiecied cases, which 

 may properly be taken as illnsiralions of ihe whole. 



