402 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



of the Republic, Col. John Smith communicated to the Society that in the last 

 spring and summer he had used " the cast plow-share which had been exhibited 

 to the Society at their meeting during the last session of the Legislature, and 

 found it to exceed his most sanguine expectations." " It is," said he, " cast in the 

 form of a Dutch share, after the best model that could be procured by the Society, 

 with this exception, that the edge is not complete, and not so wide, by about 

 three inches, as it will be when finished with the false edge, which is made of 

 wrought iron or steel, and fastened on with rivets. The soil in which 1 used 

 this share was light and free from stone, though I believe, with careful usage, 

 it will answer in any other soil, although the same may be stony and incum- 

 bered with stumps. This plow-share, besides answering every purpose of those 

 made of wrought-iron, will last to plow as much as two of the latter before it is 

 worn out, the cast-iron being nearly as durable as steel before it is hardened. By 

 this experiment it is very obvious that the cast plow-share will be very beneficial 

 to farmers, and ought to be encouraged by this Society. They may be had of 

 Mr. Peter T. Curtenius, in New-York, either with or without the edge, which 

 is made of wrought-iron or steel." Thus might we dwell, could we believe it 

 necessary, on the invention, within the period designated of P^nnock's horse- 

 rake, on improved threshing-machines, z.wdi cutting-hoxes, and corn-shellers ; and 

 though last, far from being the least, on the modern mowing-machines of Hus- 

 sey and Hotchkiss and others, to show not only that the course of agricultural 

 improvement has been progressive, but that the rate of its progress has been just 

 in proportion as its wants have engaged the attention of ingenious minds, and 

 even in spite of those denouncers of all book knowledge and all application of 

 science to the subject — your wise men, only in their own conceit, who ever hang 

 like dead weights on the wheels of useful discovery, and whose counsels would 

 have still kept us in the use of the hand-gin, the uwoden ploic, and the truck- 

 wheel, " when it required two yoke of oxen and a horse to speed the plow, and 

 tin horns and sleigh-bells to stop the speed of bees going off to swarm." Our 

 agricultural annals show still greater improvement since that time in this im- 

 portant implement, the plow, than was characterized by the change from the 

 wooden to the iron mould-board, until now, even the most sanguine may he ex- 

 cused for doubting whether we have not reached the highest attainable degreee 

 of perfection. Take, for illustration, the following extract from the Report of 



F. W. Gale, Esq., on Agricultural Implements at the Worcester (Mass.) Show, 



in the autumn of 1845 : 



The Committee commence by saying that 



they believe this department, of mechanic 



tools and agricultural implements, afFoids fa- 

 cilities for mmiers and m(!chanics to t>btaiii a 



knowledge of the various new and useful tools 



and implements which science [mark yini, 



reader, science,] and active invention are 



constiuitly supplying, that cannot, generally, 



be obtained in any other way. And then 



they proceed to observe, in respect to the 



show of plows: Messrs. Riiggles, Nourse & 



Mason contributed their usual (]uota toward 



the exhibition. Twcnly-niHC vfirictie.i of 



plows, a coni-shcUer, a vegetable-cutter, an 



improved han'ow and a well-made road- 

 scraper were sent in by ihi-m. It seems al- 

 most incredible that so many kinds of plows 



can be necessary for all soils and situations. 



But yom' Committee do not hesitate to say 



that, in their opinion, the peculiar and Jin- 



linrtivc mrritx of each arc vinihie upon trial 

 and crplauaiion. Man)" of the improve- 

 ments upon the old-l;ishi(jned plows, which 

 these gentlemen have introduced and adopt- 

 ed, are already so much in vogue as to be 

 known to all farmers; while others of later 

 date have become known to only a portion 

 of the agnciiltural interest. It seems to us 

 that the farmer neglects his own real interest 

 in neglecting to imderstanil the jieculiar 

 utility of most of these iniprt>vements. An im- 

 |)roved form of the moulil-hoard, by wliich 

 the soil is turned more easily and with less 

 exertion to the hanil than fonuerly, com- 

 mended itself to the attention of all. The 

 draft-rod upon plows of recent introduction, 

 also those of meadow fixtures, used in re- 

 claiming meadows, and cai)al)le of being re- 

 movcii, and the sjune plow used for upland 

 plowing, deserve particular notice. Tho 



