46 ON AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS. 



ows ; " the rail way used is said to be so exceedingly- 

 portable that a sufficient quantity of rail way to furnish a means 

 of conveying the marl or manure on to one acre, can be removed 

 to the next acre at a cost of two shillings, and without losing a 

 moment's time."* The form of this machinery is not described, 

 but the knowledge of the fact itself may excite the invention of 

 some ingenious men, to prepare something for our purpose equal- 

 ly convenient and useful. 



Our agricultural tools still admit of great improvement. Much 

 has already been gained. The plough, tliat first of all agricul- 

 tural implements, has received within a few years various chang- 

 es, which have been highly beneficial in facilitating its operation ; 

 diminishing the power necessary to its draft ; and enabling the 

 ploughman to make much better and neater work. Other im- 

 plements of husbandry admit of like amelioration and deserve 

 the attention of ingenious and practical men. Your Commit- 

 tee state, on the authority of one of their number, that the re- 

 volving horse rake lately introduced into this part of the country 

 from Pennsylvania proves a most valuable invention ; that a trial 

 of one season has much exceeded his expectations of its utility ; 

 and that on smooth land, a man with one horse, will rake as 

 much hay and do it in as clean a manner as six men can do in 

 an equal time with the common hand rakes. This rake is a 

 patented instrument, and its cost is considerably enhanced by this 

 circumstance ; but the saving of labor on a large farm will soon 

 defray its expense. 



Your Committee have likewise the pleasure on the authority 

 of one of the most intelligent and largest farmers in the State of 

 New York, in no way concerned in the invention of the instru- 

 ment, of announcing the construction of a mowing machine, 

 which, by his own trial, is capable on smooth ground with one 

 horse and man, of mowing neatly and closely ten acres per day, 

 and this where the grass was very much lodged. A hay-spread- 

 ing machine is likewise in the progress of construction, whose 

 utility if successful, must be great. Agriculture hitherto, com- 



* British Fanner's Magazine for Nov. 1831. p 471, 



