AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 325 



SOTnetlimg interesting about the grindstone is proved by the fact that the 

 papers have not yet done reproducing it ; and that I may say something 

 about iron that will be bearable, you will only know after you have listened 

 to what I Imve to say. I only intend to say just enough to prove that we 

 might talk upon the use and abuse of iron for a month without exhausting 

 the subject. 



The great importance of iron to civilization is not properly appreciated 

 by men whose eyes are blurred with gold, from the nail in his cradle to the 

 screw in his coffin, civiliized man is in constant need of iron. Its uses are 

 almost innumerable — its abuses altogether too numerous. Its uses in ag- 

 riculture, as well as its abuses, are worthy of something more than a mere 

 passing thought or careless word. Its uses upon the farm are so great that 

 no farm can be cultivated without it; and the abuse of iron by the farmer 

 is in using it in shapes entirely unadapted to the purpose to which it is ap- 

 plied. And still further, in not using it much more than he does for pur- 

 poses where it is much more fit than wood, which many persons seem to be 

 constantly trying "to get along with," so as to avoid. the use of iron. For 

 instance; I have seen in this country, within the present quarter century, a 

 cart doing the work of a farm, in which there was not a single ounce of iron, 

 and to this the horse was harnessed, without iron or leather. I have also 

 seen many an ox-oart built without iron, and the oxen fastened to it by raw 

 hide er leather thongs, carefully avoiding the use of iron about the yoke. I 

 have seen oxen also fastened to a plow without a chain, and the plow itself 

 almost as destitute of iron as the cart and yoke. And some wooden-head- 

 ed farmers are still to be found in the midst of civilization dragging over 

 their fields a wooden-toothed harrow. The same class ignore the use of 

 iron axles to their wagons, or of iron-shod sleds, which glide so smoothly 

 over the winter snows, that a horse forgets he is carrying a load. But 

 these are the men who abuse instead of use iron. Iron I a metal more 

 precious than gold, for that metal is only obtained in the minutest quanti- 

 ties witkout the aid of iron. 



Passing by the gold-digger, so far as the production of food is concerned, 

 as of but little more use in the world than the digger Indian, let us look 

 a little more more minutely at the uses of iron in agriculture. 



The pioneer of the forest, who goes into the woods to build a log cabin, 

 the very nucleus around which all the comforts of home are to cluster, can 

 do nothing without iron. He must have an ax with which to strike the 

 first blow toward a civilized man's habitation. In fact, until within a few 

 years, he could not start his first fire in the woods without iron. But now, 

 the friction-match has superseded the flint and steel ; but iron he must 

 liave. What could he do without it ? The wagon or cart that carried him 

 to his new home would be a poor affair without iron — though such are still 

 to be found in some parts of the United States, or rather in the territories 

 lately acquired from Mexico, But with us, our carts, wagons, sleighs, 

 sleds, are paitly composed of iron. We have learned its value in these im- 

 plements. 



