74 



AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS. 



No subject should receive more attention from those inter- 

 ested in progressive agriculture, than farm implements. It lies 

 at the very foundation of all improvement. We may have 

 new fertilizers, new modes of applying them, and increased 

 products, but the cost of tilling and harvesting must be kept 

 down by the use of labor saving machines, or there will be lit- 

 tle or no profit. So with the hay crop for example, every 

 implement that facilitates cutting, curing and gathering, tends 

 to make the crop more remunerative. 



The greatest outlay on a farm now-a-days is for wages. To 

 a great extent these must correspond to wages in other occu- 

 pations, or our farms wdll be deserted. And yet every farmer 

 — we do not include market gardeners — well knows that he 

 cannot pay extravagant or even comparatively high wages, and 

 make both ends of the year meet. Hence he is greatly inter- 

 ested in the substitution of horse power and steam power for 

 man power, and where this can be effected on the farm, it is 

 no detriment to the latter, as there are always other avenues in 

 this country for its profitable employment. 



In the West, where farming is carried on on so grand a scale, 

 horse and steam power and improved implements and machin- 

 ery are used to an extent to which we in New England are 

 unaccustomed. With them it is a necessity, or their work 

 could not be accomplished. Our farms and crops are so small 

 we do not so generally feel this necessity. We can "rub and 

 go" with the same tools that our fathers used, but then we 

 make no headway either in filling our barns or pockets. Thus 

 it is that so many complain of farming as a poor business, and 

 they always will complain till they set their brains at work to 

 devise the means to help their hands. 



But we are not obliged to invent new implements ourselves ; 

 wc have only to select from those already invented, or which 

 are constantly invented to meet the wants of the farm. True, 

 it costs considerable money to get these implements, but the 

 first cost is not the question. The question is whether it will 



