258 BERKSHIRE SOCIETY. 



To Charles Hinckley, of Lee, for ploughs of the Star- 

 buck model, . . • • . |2 00 

 To Robert Pomeroy, for mail-axles, . . . 5 00 



Mr. Pomeroy exhibited several sets of mail-axles, of his own 

 inventionand manufacture, as especially adapted to use upon 

 farm carts and wagons. The great saving in friction, which 

 this axle possesses over others, commends them to the attention 

 of all those farmers, who, while they believe that " money 

 makes the mare go," believe also, that a lightened load makes 

 her go, too. Appropriate to this, showing the adaptation of 

 this mail-axle to farm uses, upon all descriptions of lumber and 

 draught wagons, the committee are informed by a member of 

 the society of Shakers, of New Lebanon, John Dean, that he 

 has just returned from a journey of seven hundred miles, occu- 

 pying six weeks' time, upon a set of these axles, without their 

 once requiring oiling, from the time of starting ; and that, upon 

 examination, he thinks they would run three hundred miles 

 more, without renewing the oil. 



GEORGE W. MEAD, Chairman. 



Ploughing Match. 



The plough is a very ancient implement. It is written in 



the English language, p-1-o-u-g-h, and by the association of 



free and independent spellers, p-l-o-w. It may be remarked, 



that the same gentlemen can, by a similar process, turn their 



coughs into cows, which would be the cheapest mode of raising 



live stock ; but it is to be feared, that they (referring to the 



cows,) would prove but low bred animals. Some have derived 



the English word plough, from the Greek ploutos ; the wealth 



that comes from the former, suggesting its relation to the latter. 



But such resemblances between different languages, may be 



carried too far,— as, for example, if a man should trace the 



name of Alatamaha to the circumstance, that the first settlers 



were all tomahawked, on the margin of that river. 



Time and experience have sanctioned the custom of putting 

 only plain, practical men upon this committee. Were it not so, 



