185' 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



53 



and require too much time. To displace the har- 

 row the cultivator was invented. Neither gang 

 plows nor cultivator was the tool the farmer 

 ■wanted. 



GA^'G CULTIVATOR, OK SEEDING PLOW. 



Knox the inventor, with Nourse the patron, de- 

 termined to fill this want, and have just brought 

 out a new tool called the "gang cultivator." I 

 would call it the "seeding plow," it is so admir- 

 ably adapted to that purpose. The same team that 

 ■would draw the scratching harrow will draw the 

 seeding plow, and, according to the plowman's de- 

 sire ; turn four, six or eight httle furrows, so as 

 slightly to cover all the grain in such a manner, 

 that when it grows, it looks as though it had been 

 planted in drilled rows. This implement is very 

 simple, light and cheap. This is its description : In 

 form it is unlike any other cultivator, except its lit- 

 tle steel plowshare-like formed teeth. It is more 

 like an X than a V. Take hold of the upper end 

 of the left-hand top of the X and set it up perpen- 

 dicular, and call that the beam, to one end of which 

 the team is attached, and to the other end the han- 

 dles. Projecting down from the forward end is a 

 sharp tooth, that serves as a guide to keep the in- 

 strument in a right line of draught. At the hind- 

 end is another guide-tooth, that serves also as a ful- 

 crum, upon which to lift the forward end, by a 

 twist upon the handles, when the guide-tooth 

 catches a root or stone. Ujjon the other branch of 

 the X the little turning plowshares are fixed, so 

 that eight five-inch furrows are turned one after 

 another, leaving both seed and land in the best 

 condition to grow. I have rarely discovered an 

 implement that bid fairer to do its work rapidly 

 and cheaply, and give greater satisfliction to the 

 husbandman, than this new invention — this so- 

 Cdlled "Knox's Gang Cultivator." 



OPINIONS AND PEOGEESS. 



Decision is a trait of character that is almost uni- 

 versally commended. A man ■who has no opinion 

 of his own, whose mind is never "made up" on any 

 subject, is generally regarded as an undesirable 

 neighbor, and as a poor citizen. 



But however much we may admire this quality, 

 as manifested by ourselves, or by those with whom 

 we associate, there is, perhaps, none that bears so 

 poorly "the test of time," none that appears so un- 

 amiable on the page of history, none that so often 

 forces the "blush for our kind," as this same deci- 

 sion of character. 



Men would not stop to I'eason. They had not 

 patience to investigate. Nor need they do either 

 Their minds were made up. They were decided, 

 And so the most valuable discoveries and the most 

 important inventions have been pronounced hum 

 bugs, and, if possible, strangled in their infancy 

 and the man who introduced to the notice of his 

 fellows, the machinery of the heavens, and he who 

 invented the machinery of the saw-mill, M'ere alike 

 made to feel the stern rebuke of that decision of 

 character which ruled their day. 



Talk to Islam of a new invention. You perceive 



nothing undecided in his countenance. If it is in 

 the Koran, all right, and he has no need of your 

 teaching ; if not in the Koran, then he will not 

 have it any way. The Christian church has often 

 manifested a decision of chai'acter, that, when ex- 

 amined after the lapse of a century or two, assumed 

 a worse aspect than indecision and wavering would 

 have presented. 



Even farmers often make the possession of this 

 trait of character quite manifest. Their boys, more 

 especially, are very decided. They have made up 

 their minds that farming is not a fit business for 

 such promising youths as they regard themselves 

 to be ; and he who attempts to turn them from 

 their purpose of seeking an easier path to fame 

 and fortune, will find little cause to lament the 

 want of decision of character in "Young America." 

 Or, try the old folks with some new project — bet- 

 ter education, improved implements, different modes 

 of cultivation, draining, subsoiling, mowing ma- 

 chines, or locomotive plowing, — and see if they are 

 put into a maze of indecision and irresolution by 

 your eloquence. Have you throAvn them off their 

 guard and made their heads swim in confused hope 

 and wonder, or have you not, rather, raised a spar- 

 kle in their eyes, that seems to ask if you see any- 

 thing green there ? Will they not show you that 

 they have opinions of their own, and can express 

 them ; that they possess altogether too much deci- 

 sion of character to listen patiently to the details of 

 your projects, or to adopt your suggestions, unless 

 they happen to correspond with their own practice, 

 or with some of their own preconceived notions ? 



We have been led into this train of thought by 

 an extract of a plea made by a lawyer in 1825, be- 

 fore a committee of the House of Commons, 

 against a petition of the Liverpool and Manchester 

 Railway. 



"But they tell you they are to have steam car- 

 riages — locomotives, as they are to call them —with 

 which they are to do incredible things. Look at 

 their prospectuses, their pamphlets, and all that 

 they have put before the public on this wild scheme. 

 Here is one of their pictures, with a long imagina- 

 tive description, setting forth that it is to run at 

 ten, twelve, or even fifteen miles per hour. Of 

 course, they make no such pretence before this 

 committee ; quite otherwise. Mr. Rostrick tells 

 you that he believes they will go eight or ten miles 

 an hour. Mr. Stevenson thinks they will go six, 

 and is confident that they will go four miles an hour 

 with considerable loads. Very moderate, indeed, 

 compared with the extravagant pretensions made 

 where they are less likely to be scrutinized with in- 

 telligence ; but still, as I think, much more than 

 they will realize, if this visionary scheme is sanc- 

 tioned, and actually carried out. Sir, I know some- 

 thing of the country in which this alleged improve- 

 ment is to be attempted, and with no disrespect to 

 it, I must say that it has a full share of rainy weath- 

 er, when, from the slipperiness of the rails, it will 

 be impossible for these vehicles to go at all ; and 

 all traffic, of course, must be suspended in wet 



