PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURAL MECHANICS. 101 



world, and it would consign the better half of all its industries 

 to the grave ; annihilate this almost omnipotent force, and the 

 shades of night Avonld shroud with an eternal eclipse half of 

 the glories of modern civilization. But what shall we say of 

 the printing-press, that tremendous agent for good or evil, — 

 the press which in the days of our Franklin could only pro- 

 duce with wearisome toil a few hundred newspapers per day, 

 when compared with the mighty steam-press, throwing off with 

 almost the velocity of light, hundreds of thousands in a day, 

 and scattering them like leaves of the forest at almost every 

 hamlet in our land. Nor can I fail to allude, in this connec- 

 tion, to some of the astonishing improvements which have 

 taken place iu the present century, in the manufiicture of 

 textile fabrics, for which this county of Middlesex is so 

 justly renowned. The old spinning-wheels and hand-looms 

 of onr youthful days, working with toil and treadle to produce 

 a few yards of cloth per day, have been supplanted by the 

 magnificent machinery of gigantic mills, like those of Lowell 

 and Lawrence, turning out their miles of cloth per day, and 

 rivalling in power, production and competition the manufac- 

 turing cities of the Old World. 



Human pursuits are so intimately connected with each 

 other, that an improvement in one tends to the advancement 

 of them all. Hence the rural arts have been equally bene- 

 fited with other callings by the discoveries of science, and 

 the application of skill. How wonderful' the improvements 

 in labor-saving machines as applied to the arts of husbandry ! 

 Some of us remember following the old wooden plough. 

 This has been exchanged for the model iron and steel 

 plough, suited to hill and dale, and to all soils and situations ; 

 and, still more strange, for the steam-plough, rolling over its 

 numerous furrows at once, and performing the work of days 

 in an hour, and ere long to become the great engine for the 

 West. The old scythe and sickle of our fathers, hanging, 

 like harps upon the willows, have given place to the improved 

 mowers and reapers, sweeping down their ten acres per day, 

 or to the great Western harvester, moving over the broad 

 prairie like a triumphal car, cutting, gathering and storing 

 twenty acres per day. The old noisy flail, pummelling out 

 only a few bushels per day, has yielded to the mighty 



