128 Implements of Husbandry. 



weight of any particular animal which he feeds ; nor the 

 value of the articles that he uses; nor the return that stock 

 make for their food. It is otherwise all guess-work ; and 

 many vague assertions have been circulated as truths, which 

 have afterwards been found erroneous, when the experiments 

 were made with accuracy ( 2Ip ). 



A variety of other machines are to be found in the posses- 

 sion of agricultural societies, who very properly patronise 

 every new invention that promises to be useful, though few 

 of them can be employed by the farmer with real profit. 

 Indeed, when these machines are complicated, though they 

 may succeed in the hands of an ingenious artist, yet they 

 can seldom be used with advantage by the ordinary class of 

 labourers. 



There are four additional points which remain to be con- 

 sidered on the subject of implements: 1. The materials of 

 which they ought to be made; 2. The means of repairing 

 and preserving them ; 3. The propriety of introducing new 

 implements in a district; and, 4. The means of improving 

 their construction. 



1. Agricultural machines were formerly made almost en- 

 tirely of wood ; but now, in many instances, they are con- 

 structed either in whole, or in part, of hammered, or of cast 

 iron. The rapid extension of the great improvements made 

 in the plough by Small, were chiefly owing to his getting a 

 mould-board ( Zi ), and other parts of his plough, cast in iron, 

 from patterns in wood ; and plough-makers being thus fur- 

 nished, with an approved model of the most difficult parts 

 of the plough, were soon enabled to put the rest together, 

 and to spread the same improved instrument all over Scot- 

 land ( ZZI ). The use of iron, will probably, in many other in- 

 stances, supersede that of wood. It is peculiarly well cal- 

 culated for hot and dry climates, being inaccessible to the 

 attacks of insects. It may indeed, be observed, that though 

 implements in constant use, may be made either totally, or 

 partly of wood, those which are only occasionally employed, 

 should, if possible, be made of iron, as, when the season is 

 over, they are apt to be negligently laid by, and if made of 

 wood, suffer much injury ( z * z ). 



2. Every careful farmer, will lay it down as a rule, to have 

 an inventory of all his implements, and other articles there- 

 with connected ; and frequently to inspect them, so that 

 when any part of them is observed to be in the least da- 

 maged, or in danger of giving way, it may be immediately 

 repaired. An implement, likewise, that is not longer want- 



