96 BOARD OF AGKICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



Every mechanical appliance is simply a device for trans- 

 ferring burdens from the shoulders of man to those of 

 nature. Every machine is a harness in which the forces 

 of nature are made to work. The extent to which ma- 

 chinery can be employed in agricultural operations is 

 limited to some extent, even under the most favorable 

 conditions. But in manufactures of every kind the field 

 for the employment of machinery seems to l)e limited 

 only by human ingenuity. The steam engine, the tele- 

 gra[)h and telephone, the cotton gin, the sewing machine, 

 the reaper and mower and harvester have revolutionized 

 the industrial and the social world. In the days when 

 every farm was a little world in itself there was compara- 

 tively little need of exchanging the products of industry, 

 except for such occasional luxuries as must be brought 

 from other lands. But with the distril)ution of the pro- 

 ductive and manufocturing branches of industry among 

 different workers and groups of workers there came an 

 increasing necessity for bringing these separate groups 

 into closer proximity, and for providing the means of 

 prompt and frequent intercourse and facilities for the 

 convenient exchange of products. 



It would be interestino; to trace the o'rowth of manufact- 

 uring industry, in the new world, from its crude and 

 simple beginnings through costly and laI)orious experi- 

 ments to its present high state of development. But time 

 does not permit, nor does our present })urpose require it ; 

 yet, at the risk of a partial digression, I nmst ask leave 

 to introduce a sing-le extract from an order of the General 

 Court of Massachusetts Bay, in 1640 : — 



The Court, taking into series consideration the absohite neces- 

 sity for the raising of the manifacture of Hnneu cloth &c., doth 

 declare that it is the intent of this Court that there sliall bee 

 an order setled about it, and therefore doth require the inagis- 

 trats and deputies of the severall towns to acquaint the townes- 

 men therewith, and to make inquiry what seed is in every town, 

 what men and women are skillful in the braking, spinning and 

 weaving ; what means for the providing of wheels ; and to con- 

 sider with those skillful in that manifacture, what course may 

 be taken to raise the materials, and produce the manifacture, and 



