AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 561 



too many homesteads." The following extract from the letter 

 contains a useful hint We advise its general adoption wherever 

 there is a poor devil that don't own a grindstone : 



" Not long since, a respectable, well-to-do Jersey farmer called 

 on the dealer to get two grindstones. One he wanted ' a good 

 one,' for his own use, to be kept in his private sanctum ; the other 

 as ' hard as thunder,' for the use of his neighbors, to be put in 

 some exposed place on his farm where they could ' come and go,' 

 and make free with it. He selected the two — the good one for 

 himself, and the poor one for his neighbors. Now this was a 

 sensible man, and no doubt a good farmer — a sort of farmer who 

 would not keep a grindstone that he loved, for others' use. He 

 will always have a good one for himself, and one as ' hard as 

 thunder ' for his ' go-day come-day nobody ' neighbors, for he 

 selected a good one for the purpose — one that will long out-last 

 his good one, out-live himself, and descend an heir-loom to his 

 children's children. His neighbors may come and grind, and 

 and grind, and the longer they grind the harder it will get, and 

 there will be no signs of wasting or decay, except a very hard and 

 glazed face, perhaps a reflection of the faces of those who use it 

 — for the farmer that borrows a grindstone must have a hard 

 cheek. It may not be known to every farmer that long exposure 

 to the sun will so harden a grindstone that it will become 

 worthless." 



Mr. Robinson continued — And so it seems that a good grind- 

 stone, as well as a good many other good farming tools, may be 

 spoiled by exposure to the elements. This is another of its abuses. 

 Many a good grindstone have I seen ruined by standing out doors 

 with the upper part exposed to the sun, and the under part soak- 

 ing in the trough. In a few months' use, the wet is worn away 

 faster than the dry part, until it hangs out of balance, and then 

 one part is always down and wet, and the other up and baking in 

 the sun, till at length you might almost as well try to grind an ax 

 upon a bob sled, as upon such a poor, one sided and much abused 

 grindstone. I must say that I have always admired the thrift of a 

 Jerseyman. I admire it still more to-day. I commend that man's 



[Am. Inst.] 36 



