VALUE OF FARM MACHINERY. 9 



war must therefore have resulted in the general ruin of 

 the grain interest, and prevented the annual shipment of 

 the millions during that gigantic contest, which so greatly 

 surprised the commercial savans of Europe. 



The implements and machines which every farmer must 

 have wlio does his work well are numerous and often 

 costly. A farm of one hundred acres requires the aid of 

 nearly all the following; two or more good plows, a 

 shovel-plow, a small plow, a subsoiler, a single and two- 

 horse cultivator, a seed-planter, a grain-drill, a roller, a 

 harrow, a fanning-iiiill, a straw-cutter, a root-slicer, a farm 

 wagon with hay-rack, an ox-cart, a horse-cart, wheel-bar- 

 row, sled, shovels, spades, hoes, hay-forks and manure- 

 forks, hand-rakes and horse-rakes, scythes and grain- 

 cradle, grain-shovel, maul and wedges, pick, axes, wood- 

 saw, hay-knife, apple-ladders, and many other smaller con- 

 veniences. The capital for furnishing the farms in the 

 Union has been computed to amount to more than five 

 hundred millions of dollars, and as much more is estimat- 

 ed to be yearly paid for the labor of men and horses 

 throughout the country at large. To increase the effect- 

 ive force of labor only one-fifth would, therefore, add an- 

 nually one hundred millions in the aggregate to the profits 

 of farming. 



A knowledge of the science of mechanics is not so well 

 understood among all classes of people as it should be. A 

 loss often occurs from the want of a correct knowledge 

 of mechanical principles. The strength of laborers is 

 badly applied by the use of unsuitable tools, and that of 

 teams is partly lost by being ill adjusted to the best line 

 of draught. We may perhaps see but few instances of 

 so great a blunder as the ignorant teamster committed 

 who fastened his smaller horse to the shorter end of the 

 whifile-tree, to balance the large horse at the longer end ; 

 yet instances are not uncommon where operations are per- 

 formed to almost as great a disadvantage, and which, to 

 1* 



