40 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Jan. 



Fuel 2000 tons. 



Grindstones 85 " 



Emery 18 " 



Vitriol 5 " 



Glue 3 " 



The amount of sales, the last year, was $600,000. 

 The average price of shovels per dozen, is about 

 $10. 



At this establishment are manufactured one-third 

 of all the shovels, (six hundred dozen a day) made 

 in the United States. So it is the banner shop, fol- 

 lowed at a considerable distance by about thirty 

 other shops, the principal of which are those of the 

 Rowlands, at Philadelphia, and Lippincott, at Pitts- 

 burg, Pa. 



The natural increase in the demand for shovels 

 occasioned by the growth of the population, has 

 been greatly augmented by the construction of rail- 

 roads and canals, and the discovery of the gold 

 mines in California and Australia. The latter coun- 

 try, at the present time, opens the principal foreign 

 markets, — taking from five to ten thousand annual- 

 ly. There is a large exportation, also, to South 

 America and Canada. 



We have headed this article The American Shov- 

 el, for two reasons : 1. It is the only shovel in 

 use at home, there having been no importation of 

 shovels, of any consequence, for sale since 1828 ; 

 and 2. For the combination of Ughtness and 

 strength, and, very likely, for cheapness also, it has 

 the preference in the colonies of Great Britain. 

 Here then is a decided victory, obtained in a com- 

 paratively few years, by our manufacturers ; and 

 for this victory we are mainly indebted to the fine 

 establishment at North Easton. 



But this is far from being its only title to consid- 

 eration and honor. We look upon it as a manifest- 

 ation of ability, of prudence and courage combined, 

 of a noble ambition or pride in a useful enterprise, — 

 of some of the best features of New England ener- 

 gy, diligence and ingenuity ; and we have taken 

 pleasure in sketching the story of its progress, from 

 its small beginnings and early struggles with dif- 

 ficulty, from the time when the venerable head of 

 the firm found it far harder to dispose of a few doz- 

 en shovels, carried by himself in a wagon to Provi- 

 dence, than to get rid now of hundreds of dozens, — 

 up to its present prosperous and commanding con- 

 dition. 



nexion with it is something to be proud of. Should 

 his life be spared till he rounds off the fiftieth year 

 of his ser^ace, he ought to have a jubilee and a tes- 

 timonial ! 



But besides the benevolent working of this free- 

 labor institution, — where every man who respects 

 himself may preserve his independence and put the 

 wages of his own toil into his own pocket, — it tells 

 also of social advancement. You may despise a 

 single shovel, but when you reflect that more than 

 two millions of shovels are demanded annually, 

 from the makers in the United States alone, the 

 shovel, we submit, becomes amazingly significant. 

 You may look at it in the hands of a coal-heaver, 

 and read on its blackened surface a story of doings 

 as wonderful, and almost as magical, as those re- 

 corded of Aladdin's lamp. We have not room to 

 recite the merest fragment of the tale. But who- 

 soever will number up all the kingdoms that con- 

 tribute, all the sciences and arts that in these modern 

 times go to the making of a shovel, and thea medi- 

 tate on the important part the shovel has played, 

 and is still playing, in road-building and internal 

 improvements, in that digging for gold, which, per- 

 chance, saved the commercial world from a gener- 

 al bankruptcy, and now so largely affects trade the 

 globe over — whosoever will do this, as it may be 

 done, will find the shovel growing in his imagina- 

 tion into a thing of might and meaning, and the 

 shovel-maker claiming hie respect as a benefactor 

 of mankind. — Travtlkr. 



THE HAIK SKAKE. 



This singular species of "animated nature," so 

 readily explained by every country child, as the 

 simple metamorphosis of a horse-hair that chanced 

 to fall into water, is an unsolved enigma with natu- 

 ralists. Science has not satisfactorily determined 

 either the origin or the modes of existence of these 

 animals. In reply to inquiries by a correspondent 

 of the Michigan Farmer, who found hair snakes in 

 a pan of milk, Mr. Justus Gage, of that State, fur- 

 nishes a very interesting account of his experiments 

 and observations. He is satisfied of the fact that 



