POSSIBILITIES OF THE FUTURE. 29 



ploughs, adapted to the prairie soils of the West. Another 

 factory, in the same city, as early as 1836, made ploughs at the 

 average rate of 4,000 a year. The two factories made 34,000 

 ploughs a year, valued at $174,000. 



There are now many other still larger factories, some of 

 which make from ten to twelve hundred diifereut patterns, 

 adapted to every variety of soil and circumstances. 



No one can for a moment doubt the vast superiority of the 

 best of the ploughs of the present day over the old forms in 

 common use half a century ago. They have greater pulveriz- 

 ing power ; they are less liable to clog ; while in lightness of 

 draught, case of holding, durability, cheapness, perfection of 

 mechanical work, quality of material, completeness with 

 which the surface is inverted and the weeds or stubble buried, 

 uniformity of wear, regularity of turning the furrow-slice, 

 and other respects, we have made a vast and unquestionable 

 improvement. In short, mechanical principles are better- 

 understood and more intelligently applied. We have com- 

 bined simplicity of construction with economy of power. 

 A better knowledge of the strength of materials has enabled 

 us to reduce the size of all the parts of farming-tools, and so 

 to avoid the clumsiness of the older style of implements, and, 

 at the same time, to secure much more effective work. We 

 have made some progress, also, in substituting the principle 

 of the spade, or the fork, for that of the plough, as the use of 

 the rotary spader is a sufficient proof. We have made some 

 'progress in the application of steam to the operation of plough- 

 ing, and the wonderful performances of the steam-plough, in 

 the few instances where it has been tried, have indicated the 

 possibilities of the future, and shown that the time is not far 

 distant when we shall have it in our power to develop the 

 resources of the great West to an extent and with an economy 

 never yet dreamed of. 



THE HARROW. 



The importance of a complete and perfect pulverization of 

 the soil, to admit of the extension of the roots of plants, and 

 the access of air and moisture, was never more fully realized 

 than at the present time. As it is at best but partially 

 effected by the plough, which crumbles and breaks down the 



