12 The State and the Farmer 



duced an Implement of new adaptabilities. 

 The plow has come to be a construction of 

 lightness, grace and beauty, and of great effec- 

 tiveness. 



Most agricultural tools have shown a similar 

 evolution. Even the common fork has under- 

 gone marked change. Light hand tools are of 

 many new kinds and forms. But it is in the 

 range of machinery that the change appeals most 

 to the imagination. To be sure, the great devel- 

 opment of farm machinery has been mostly 

 for the easy conditions of level-area farming 

 and for the more wholesale operations, but the 

 development has been marvelous nevertheless. 

 The mere mention of the names of some of 

 the farm machines will recall how great the 

 change has been : from the sickle to the cradle, 

 to the reaper and self-binder; from the scythe 

 to the mowing-machine ; the hay-rakes and 

 hay -loaders; all the hay forks and stackers; 

 the corn-harvester; the great separators or 

 threshers; the sowers, planters and transplant- 

 ers; manure-spreaders; the grinders and feed- 

 mills ; power ditching-machines; the spraying 



