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have no word of blame for the young men ; they are hired 

 to do certain work, to puff their machines, and they do it 

 faithfully, if not well. Almost any farmer could give some 

 illustration from his own experience of unfortunate invest- 

 ments made in the purchasing of implements, by reason of 

 having but the statements of the salesman to guide him. 

 I will give two that occur to me from my own. Some years 

 ago a fellow townsman having obtained the agency of a 

 new hay rake then being made, called on me. As at that 

 time I happened to be in great need of one, on his eloquent 

 setting forth of its merits, I purchased. When taken into 

 the field the implement proved to be utterly worthless, and 

 I learned soon after that the company had discontinued 

 the manufacture of them. A while ago a newly patented 

 seed planter was sent me on trial. A neighbor coming to 

 borrow a planter that day, I gave him the new comer. In 

 the course of an hour he came back with it saying it would 

 not work, and on writing to the firm who sent it out, I was 

 informed that fatal defects had been found and it had been 

 withdrawn from the market. Somewhat recently I pur- 

 chased a much lauded mowing machine, which by reason 

 of a defect in the planning, proved to be nearly worthless. 

 Coming down to the smaller tools, how difiicult, yes, al- 

 most impossible it is to find a rake with teeth that are 

 really steel, (the makers instead of steeling their rakes, 

 prefer to steal our money !) teeth that will not bend and 

 curve in all directions after a year of use. Our dung forks 

 are often times no better. The days of honest old Par- 

 tridge who made his forks so faithfully that having tines 

 about fifteen inches long when new, they would wear until 

 but four inches were left of them, and yet line as accurately 

 with each other as when they first came from the factory. 

 As I write this article I have one such by my side. Our 

 hand hoes, I am happy to be able to say are, as a rule, 

 most excellent in their composition, their design and their 

 make, a credit to the manufacturer and an honor to Ameri- 

 can mechanics. Most of the different makes are thin 



