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and profit ; and hence the narrower limit to which our show of 

 implements is confined, so different from the extensive variety and 

 the constant multiplication of new designs, adapted to the execu- 

 tion of almost every description of agricultural labor-, as is seen, 

 for example, at the exhibitions in the State of New York. 



This statement is not made in the spirit of complaint at the 

 scantiness of the articles exhibited at our exhibitions, although we 

 believe that a public spirit, which should afford an extensive dis- 

 play of those splendid specimens of mechanical skill and ingenuity, 

 which in our day — so Avidely different from former times — are 

 displayed in agricultural implements, would be amply rewarded, 

 even if new models and machines were rare, and the spectator 

 was called to view only those with the uses and importance of 

 Avhich he was already familiar. 



The character of our people for inventive genius and skill, is too 

 well established in the records of the country, to allow the suspi- 

 cion that the mechanics of New York and Pennsylvania surpass 

 them in ingenuity and skill, because they do in the number of their 

 inventions in the department of agricultural implements recorded 

 at the Patent Office at Washington. Human ingenuity is at the 

 command of want and necessity, which are always allied with the 

 overpowering stimulus of profit ; and it is the character of the 

 soil that is to be cultivated in the Middle and Western States, 

 that inspires the genius of the mechanics in those States. Our 

 variety of implements, although meagre compared with some other 

 sections, is probably fully equal to the demand of the times, and 

 has kept pace with the spirit of intelligence and general improve- 

 ment which prevails so universally at the present time. The 

 difference in ploughs, rakes, shovels, hoes, axes, forks, carts, and 

 all other ancient implements, as they appear at the present day, 

 in contrast with the past, attest sufficiently the attention and skill 

 bestowed on this branch of science ; and the onlv enigma left to 

 excite the wonder of the economist, is, that they seem to have 

 had no other effect than to enliance the price of the crops they 

 help to bring forth and were intended to multiply. 



There seems to be a principle at work, which requires that in 

 proportion as the fruits of the earth are aided in their production 

 by beautiful and superior implements, the more costly they shall 

 become. When the wooden ploughshare, with scarcely metal 



