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spontaneous productions. In this condition of affairs, the im- 

 portance of good labor-saving farm machinery becomes very 

 apparent. The stout and heavy and unwieldy weapons, with 

 Avhich our ancestors subdued the wilderness, were useful enough 

 when wielded by their own strong arms, whose strength was 

 increased by a firm will and vigorous industry. But we can 

 no more emjjloy such implements in any modern profitable ag- 

 riculture, than we could substitute the hand-labor of China for 

 our own well-ordered and powerful engines. It is one of the 

 most important questions which the farmer is called upon to 

 decide-— how far he can devote his capital to the best farm ma- 

 chinery ? 



It is indeed doubtful whether any machine can be employed 

 in tilling the earth, in digging and manipulating the soil, in ap- 

 plying manure, in sowing seed, in harvesting, with so good an 

 effect as that produced by the hand of the skillful husbandman. 

 But this can be applied only to small tracts of land, unless by 

 the employment of a large and expensive force. We must re- 

 sort, then, to such machinery as will enable us to carry on our 

 business economically and profitably. 



Perhaps the time has not yet arrived when we can equip our 

 farms with all the intricate implements which constitute a part 

 of the outfit of an English farmer. We can, however^ employ 

 with advantage the improvements which have been made by 

 the skill of our own people. In all the smaller tools, there is 

 no doubt that we are far in advance of any other nation. Our 

 shovels, and spades, and forks, and hoes, and rakes are light, 

 well-balanced, and, when carefully made, very sti-ong and dur- 

 able. No American farmer would think it possible to carry on 

 his farm with the implements used in most parts of Europe. 

 At the recent International Exhibition at Hamburg, the steel- 

 tined pitch-forks exhibited by American manufacturers, were 

 examined with fear and trembling by the German farmers, who 

 considered them dangerous instruments, when compared with 

 their own clumsy, and by no means formidable wooden forks, 

 used by them in their hay-fields and farm yards. We need 



