FARM IMPLEMENTS. 249 



The seed sower, corn planter, mowing machine, and horse- 

 rake, have triumphed over prejudice, and are now fixed facts 

 and indispensable to every one who aspires to be a farmer. The 

 mowing machine in particular, is, at the present time, attracting 

 universal attention, and, in the opinion of your committee, 

 deservedly so. For what the cotton-gin has done for the 

 southern planter, the mower is to do for the northern farmer. 

 The machines have been brought to such a state of perfection, 

 do their work so well, and with such dispatch, that no farmer 

 can afford to cut his grass with a scythe. It is no objection 

 that the machine requires smooth fields to operate on, for no 

 farmer should have any other than such fields for mowing. It 

 does not come within the province of your committee, to speak 

 of the merits or demerits of rival machines. All that have been 

 on exhibition are a decided improvement on hand mowing. 

 Let any farmer purchase the one which, in his opinion, is the 

 best, and he will be satisfied of the fact. 



Our grass is cut and spread by machinery. We want, and 

 must have a machine for turning and tending the hay. The 

 English have one in successful operation, and the Yankee, who 

 will put it in motion, here, may be sure of a rich reward. 

 Model loading machines are on exhibition, and we trust the 

 thing itself will soon be perfected and brought into use. 



Although machines plant our corn, and the horse-hoe assists 

 in its cultivation, we need assistance in its harvest. To supply 

 this want, a husking machine has been invented, but has not 

 been exhibited in this vicinity. We trust that it will soon make 

 its appearance, accompanied by the patent potatoe digger and 

 sorter, and prove worthy of, and receive the patronage of our 

 farmers. The benefits already conferred on agriculture by the 

 mechanic arts are great, but much more remains to be done. 

 We need have no fear that they will abrogate the curse of the 

 fall, (turned by Providence into a blessing,) that labor will cease 

 to be necessary, and that idleness, " the mother of vice," will 

 prevail. For, with the steam-plough passing over our fields and 

 and inverting the sod, " like a thing of life," with our grain 

 harvested and threshed by horse-power, with our hay cut, tended, 

 loaded and unloaded by mechanical force, with our corn planted, 

 cultivated, husked and shelled by machinery, with our broom- 

 corn brush scraped, potatoes dug, apples pared, cored and sliced, 



