AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS. 139 



too, in five or ten minutes. He may be wheedled into a pur- 

 chase, but after a few trials he will be no mote proud of it than 

 Franklin was of his whistle. 



A farmer, of all men, needs to have a wise caution in pur- 

 chasing things that promise large results. He must look into 

 them for himself, or must rely upon the judgment or experience 

 of others who have tested them. If he takes only the word of 

 the vendor, or the certificates of persons unknown to him, he 

 will be liable to be swindled, as some in our county have been 

 this very season. 



With reference to new implements, it may truly be said that 

 one trial will not fully test them. " One swallow does not make 

 a summer," is a good adage for farmers. Many new agricul- 

 tural tools, like new brooms, work well at first, but before long 

 one defect and another come out where you little suspect it, and 

 unless it be remedied they must be abandoned. Pope's very 

 conservative rule with regard to fashion might perhaps be 

 recommended in the use of farm implements, — 



" Be not the first by •whom the new is tried, 

 Nor yet the last to lay the old aside ; " 



only we should be glad to know, if everybody adopted this rule, 

 how any improvement is to be introduced ? There must be a 

 first one to try every new thing, and generally it is tlie most 

 enterprising and thrifty — sometimes, too, the most notional — 

 who is ready and willing to do it. And the whole farming com- 

 munity are under obligations to such men — men who at great 

 expense of time and money, and sometimes at the risk of preju- 

 dice and ridicule, go forward with a new horse-mower, or a 

 horse-rake, or hay-tedder, and by their example revolutionize 

 their neighborhoods. All honor to such men ! They are bene- 

 factors of their race ! Let the Essex Agricultural Society ever 

 encourage such men by prompt and appreciative attention, and 

 by a liberal award of premiums. 



At an exhibition of agricultural implements the committee 

 labor under a difficulty in making their awards. It is seldom 

 they can assign reasons for their preference of one implement 

 over another of the same class, founded on a trial of them on 

 the spot. They must rely, therefore, on a careful inspection of 

 the implements and such reliable testimony as they can gather 



