398 NORFOLK SOCIETY. 



ten to twelve acres with wheat in a day ; and with one horse 

 he can plant twenty acres of corn per day." 



We also copy from a newspaper the following account of a 

 machine for digging potatoes. 



" The machine embraces a scoop, a brush cylinder and end- 

 less apron, connected by a movable frame, by operating with 

 the scoop is made to enter the ground the required distance, 

 and raise up the potatoes, which, by a cylinder having a re- 

 volving brush, the potatoes are brought forward from the 

 scoop to the endless apron, which carries them away and de- 

 posits them in a receptacle at the back of the frame. The 

 machine is designed to be worked by horses. The bottom of 

 the scoop, also the bottom of the receptacle for the potatoes, is 

 formed of bars, to separate the dirt from the potatoes ; the 

 brush also removes the dirt, so that they are rendered very 

 clean." 



The public are already familiar with the celebrated reaper, 

 which was the pride of America and the wonder of the world, 

 at the fair recently held in London. Formerly such a machine 

 would have been regarded as the enemy of the laborer in its 

 character of substitute for his services ; but experience has 

 taught that the condition of all classes is improved by such 

 substitution, and that comforts are increased and civilization 

 advanced by means of the application of power to multiply 

 the products of the earth and mitigate the severities of labor. 



Agriculture, being the mother of the arts and the sole reli- 

 ance of civilized man for the means of subsistence, and its 

 operations having been in a great degree dependent upon the 

 application of muscular strength, it has naturally followed that 

 the greatest attention has been bestowed, in modern times at 

 least, upon the means for facilitating the labors of the hus- 

 bandman, and to mitigate the hardship of his toil. And thus 

 we find the experience of the farmer, the ingenuity of the in- 

 ventor, and the skill of the mechanic, have combined, from the 

 earliest periods, in endeavors to improve every species of agri- 

 cultural implement, and to enlarge the sphere of them until we 

 are prepared to contrast the grand and beneficial results of to- 

 day with the feeble beginnings and rude attempts of our an- 

 cestors. It is hoped that these endeavors will not cease, but 

 by the aid of agricultural societies and the patronage bestowed 



