232 [Assembly 



employed a good workman in cutting tools to make his spade and 

 hoe of trowel stuf, so hard that no stone could injure its edge, 

 and so thin that the spade was driven by hand instead of foot, up 

 to the hub, polished as a razor. It entered the ground with twice 

 the facility of the old rusty or half rusty iron spade. He said 

 that with such spades he was able to dig 2,600 square feet of 

 ground thoroughly in one day, and dance in the evening, while 

 two men with the old iron spade dug no more ground in a whole 

 day. The same may be said of the thin steel hoe. These imple- 

 ments he always kept perfectly polished and sharp. Dr. Mitchell 

 witnessing the excellent efforts of these polished implements had 

 a plough made of iron, perfectly polished, and sent it to the Em- 

 peror of Russia about the year 1817, and received the warm 

 thanks of the Emperor, and a diamond ring said to be worth five 

 thousand dollars. 



The mechanics of America are the most lavish of cost as to 

 their instruments of labor ot any men that ever lived. They are 

 right. Moral writers have long said that great art and cost are 

 lavished on the arms of war. They glitter in the rays of the 

 sun. Even a scoundrel cannon has elaborate ornaments on his 

 hreech! 



WHEEL CULTIVATOR. 



Solon Robinson said, that as new implements were in order, he 

 would mention a new one which he had lately seen in operation 

 at the North American Phalanx, in Monmouth County, N. J. 

 This is the wheel cultivator, so hung upon the axle of a small 

 pair of wheels that it can be raised in a moment from the ground, 

 when moving from field to field, and it can be regulated to any 

 depth, or in case of rising next to a row of trees, it can be set 

 shallow next to the roots, and deep on the other side. It is an 

 excellent implement for peach orchards, and answers next to the 

 drill for putting it in wheat, leaving it in rows. The wheels 

 keep it steady, and the work is much better done than with the 

 ordinary cultivator, and equalJy as well as with gang ploughs. 

 It requires a strong pair of horses, or good yoke of oxen. 



The Chairman remarked, that Judge Buel's bayonet hoe has 

 not yet come into general use, notwithstanding its unquestionable 

 merit. 



