aids, which the mechanic and the manufacturer find in the 

 invention of the most curious machinery, and the application 

 of water and steam power to their various arts. Yet the farmer 

 is not without advantage from the improvements of science 

 and mechanical ingenuity. An immense gain has been effect- 

 ed in the great machine the plough ; and in regard to the fa- 

 cility of holding, the ease of draught, and the manner of exe- 

 cuting the work, the modern cast iron plough of the most im- 

 proved construction has an extraordinary advantage over the 

 clumsy and cumbrous machine of former times. The revolv- 

 ing horse-rake is a machine of great utility ; by which on 

 smooth land a man and boy and horse will easily perform the 

 work of six men. A threshing machine, whose operation has 

 been completely tested, has lately been introduced here, which 

 promises to be of great utility. It is worked by a single horse, 

 and is without difficulty transported from place to place. It 

 performs its work in a perfect manner and has been known to 

 thresh two bushels of grain in five minutes. Two men, a boy, 

 and a horse, will easily thresh one hundred bushels in a day ; 

 and the actual saving of grain, from the more effectual manner 

 in which it performs its work over what can be done by a ftail, 

 is very great. A roller of an improved construction is exhibit- 

 ed on this occasion ; and deserves the attention of farmers as 

 an instrument next in value to a harrow or a plough, and al- 

 most as indispensable to good cultivation. This is literally 

 the age of invention. Improved machines for shelling corn, 

 for cutting fodder, for grinding corn in the cob, &c. are fast 

 coming into use, and promise great advantages. We may 

 hope that other inventions may present themselves to ingenious 

 and inquisitive minds, by which the severe toil of the husband- 

 man may be lightened and abridged.* 



* A mowing mnchine moved by horse power, and producing a great 

 saving of manu-.l labor, has been for two or three years in successful opera- 

 tion in Pennsylvania, and the western parts of New York ; and from the 

 testimony of one of the largest farmers in the United States, upon whose 

 farm it has been two years in use, is highly successful. We cannot ima- 

 gine what human skill and enterprize may,yet effect. Professor Rafinesque, 



