138 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



riment to the latter, as there are always other avenues in this 

 country for its profitable employment. 



In the West, where farming is carried on on so grand a scale, 

 horse and steam power and improved implements and machinery 

 are used to an extent to which we in New England are unac- 

 customed. With tljem it is a necessity, or their work could not 

 be accomplished. Our farms and crops are so small we do not 

 so generally feel this necessity. We can " rub and go " with 

 the same tools that o^ir fathers used, but then we make no head- 

 way either in filling our barns or pockets. Thus it is that so 

 many complain of farming as a poor business, and they always 

 will complain till they set their brains at work to devise the 

 means to help their hands. 



But we are not obliged to invent new implements ourselves ; 

 we have only to select from those already invented, or which are 

 constantly invented to meet the wants of the farm. True, it 

 costs considerable money to get these implements ; but the first 

 cost is not the question. The question is whether it will be a 

 good investment. Again, you fear to buy lest a better imple- 

 ment will shortly be introduced, and you will wait for that. 

 But, by the same rule, when that comes, you will wait for its 

 successor, and so on, till you miss your opportunity. So fares 

 it with some farmers, and you can easily tell whether they are 

 among the most thrifty. Others run to the opposite extreme, 

 buy every now implement that comes along, and have a good 

 deal of useless machinery to fill their sheds. Of course there 

 is discretion to be exercised here, as in other things, and by it 

 you must direct your path. 



Of implements of acknowledged utility, we say, in the words 

 affixed to the advertisements of Webster's dictionary, " Get 

 the best." Depend upon it, the best is in the long run the 

 cheapest. Only be sure to use and house your tools carefully. 

 As a- general thing you will be more likely to do this if you buy 

 the best than if you buy the cheapest. Yet we would not be 

 understood as claiming that high cost is an infallible guarantee 

 of the best quality. There may be fixtures about tools, as well 

 as tools themselves, that are more ornamental than useful. A 

 farmer needs to have his eyes open when he is shown a churn, 

 -for example, that has a variety of arrangements by which it is 

 asserted that butter can be churned by a small child, and that. 



