THE PLOW. 403 



chiltfd share luid latul-s^ido inaimfa<'tured by 

 them aro d<'cldt'd iniprovenicnts over most 

 plows now in use. A wheel at the (brward 

 end of the cultivator, has been recently added 

 by thetn and greatly lacilitafes turning, regu- 

 lates the dejitli, and steadies the movement of 

 the implement. Theirsiil>.-!oil-plo\v, made upon 

 j)recisely the same ])riiici])l<- as oiu? impoiled 

 by them from iScotlauil, in UMO, has been 

 8imi)lilied in consti'uction, and reduced incest 

 from fifty doll;u-s in Scotland to filteen dollars 

 in Massachusetts, of corresponding size. For 

 this they deserve the thanks of every fanner. 

 Every real improvement in any agiicultural 

 iuiiilemeiit may be said, in one sense, to be 



an additional pair of hands, or at lea,«t an 

 e.vtra brace of muscles, to the fanner, which 

 he gets without paying them extra wages. In 

 this, view, too much encouragement cannot 

 be given to those who are seeking to improve 

 and j)erfect every kind ol" imph^meiit which 

 the husbandman employs. Messrs. Ruggles, 

 .Noursint Mason have lor years exercised an in- 

 defatigable zeal and perseverance in thisbehalf, 

 and have been rewarded with great success. 

 Your Committee recommend that a gratuity 

 of tvn dollars be given them, as a trifling 

 though inadequate proof of the Society's ap- 

 preciation of their indisputable skill and con- 

 stant exertions to imj)rove U[)on the past.* 



And if so much has been realized, in spite of popular prejudice and pusillanim- 

 ity, and in the absence even of all demand on the part of the lauded interest for 

 Government provision for civil as well as warlike education, who shall say what 



* We cnnnot forbear the opportunity once more to suggest whether it would not at once indicate and 

 help to form a better ta.ste, were Societies to give their tokens of approbation in almost any other shape 

 than thai of money .' There seems to be in a V. or an X. dollar note something so mercenary, so sordid, sa» 

 incompatible in its very appearance and uses, with the fine sentiment of pride and love of distinction 

 ■which premiums arc, or should be, intended to promote, that really we could never bring ourselves to 

 comprehend how it is that the distribution of these trifling sums, down as low even as one dollar — and 

 that even to matronly housewives and young ladies, for beautiful samples of female ingenuity and indus- 

 try—should be continued among refined peojjle. Wliat, for instance, is a ten dollar note to the proprietors 

 of a great manuftictory of agricultural implements ? Yet even they might value something, the merest trifle, 

 which could be exhibited to their friends and transmitted to their children, as a visible trophy won br their 

 own ingenuity and public spirit. Much sooner, we presume, would Messrs. R. N. &. M. have gircn the 

 worth of the X. in some improved im])lement, selected by the Society to be labeled with its approba- 

 tion, and placed in some public museum or repository of useful inventions. It is not the gi-oss passion for 

 money, the axtri sacra fames, to which Societies desire to appeal in these cases ; and if they did, such tri- 

 fling reward would be inadequate — for that and the mere record of approbation itselPwoutd answer as well. 

 How much more appropriate would have been, in a case like this, some small piece of plate, with a suitable 

 scription, or some agricultural work, or work on mechanics, or the biography of sotne distinguished me- 

 ehanician, a Memoir of Sir John Sinclaik, the great promoter of Agriculture, or of Watt, or Akkwbight, 

 or Franklin, the printer, or Pratt, the tanner, or IUikritt, the learned blacksmith, or a copy of Ran- 

 eorae's work on the I'Luw, or any agricultural periodical, as the Cultivator, the Agriculturist, the Farmers' 

 Cabinet, the American Fanner — something, however trifling in cost, with an appropriate and enduring ex- 

 pression of the Society's approval of their ingenuity and enterprise— in short, anything but a little monty ! 

 Even under the supposition that there exists in any community, which we can hardly believe, a feeling of 

 preference for V argent, on such occasions, over any other even less costly tokens of approval, the coarseness 

 of such a taste ought not, by a Society, to be presumed or recognized, as we humbly think, much less en- 

 couraged. Education, the ennobling and salutary thirst for honorable distinction, can hardly be said ti> 

 have elTcct where, for instance, a silver pen, vi-ith a gold blade, such as that which is doing this sad speci- 

 men of chirography, and presented by a fair lady, would not be far more valued than a V. note, even though 

 the former a»stbut $2 .jO, while the latter would, in the open market, command 100 wt. of •• pickled pork ! ' 

 Well are we aware that such notions are not what are called "practical ; " still we believe that in the long 

 run the highest practical results are to be realized, by appealing to the highest and most elevated motives 

 of action. Our notion may be "diseased," as Tom Tough says in the song; but if so, "it's a disease we 

 shaH die un." V>''hat we have ventured to suggest wae not designed for this case in particular. The oc- 

 casion has been used to say, in the way of a note here, what might as well, and perhaps better, have been 

 set forth in a separate article ; but we thought it as well to "strike while the iron is hot.'' 



The above reasoning does not apply to the premiums of one, two, or three hundred dollars, oft'ered, as 

 they should be, for elaborate, scientific, and really oriirinal and valuable essays, which demand great labor 

 and research, and which necessarily occupy much of that time which their authors are forced to dedicate 

 to the, after all, inadequate support of their fJimihes. In such cases, the successful asthor may be said to be 

 employed in the line uf his profession, and though the honor of winning the prize constitutes a large port 

 of its value in such cases, yet something else must be had, to use a common but significant expression, " to 

 make the pot boil." 



Societies that find it difficult to get subscribers at $3 (or even, as we have known in some cases, at 50 

 cents) a year, think nothing of calling on a man who has nothing but mental labor to depend on, to furnish 

 them with an essay or an address, involving as much labor as. in the way of business, a lawyer would ex- 

 pect to be rewiirded with at least a |lOO note. Ed. Farm. Lib. 

 (835) 



