AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 32*1 



that might be in flames. I speak of this pump merely because I happen to 

 know it better than any other, and know it to be very simple, durable, 

 powerful, and cheap; and it don't freeze up, nor get out of order once a. 

 year. There may be others with equally good qualities that I don't 

 know. I know this, and think I may be doing the farmers good by speak- 

 ing of it. I know that no farmer can possibly afford to do without this, or 

 some other equally valuable iron pump. I urge them to think of it. A 

 boy ten years old can work it, and throw a continuous inch-and-a-quarter 

 stream. Think how quickly a lot of cattle could be watered. Think, too, 

 of the garden, during a drouth. The children would take turns in pumping 

 and holding the hose, to throw a shower every evening over their favorite 

 flowers and the parched vegetables. Upon many farms, such a pump should 

 be attached to a wind-mill, and water elevated for all purposes, as it can 

 be made to work in deep wells, as well as shallow ones. 



In short, it should be impressed upon the mind of every farmer in Amer- 

 ica, and, in fact, upon the owner of every house and well or cistern in the 

 country, that his greatest safeguard against fire is a good iron pump. It 

 is better than a policy of insurance, and will not cost half as much. 



I have said nothing of the uses of iron in all mechanical operations, nor 

 of its use in building ships and houses, because its purposes are innumer- 

 able. My object has been to induce farmers to think a little about the 

 uses of iron in agriculture, and that there are many purposes to which they 

 may apply it, that some of them have never taken into consideration. 



The use of iron agricultural implements is increasing almost beyond be- 

 lief. Fifty years ago an iron plow was unknown. Now we have them with- 

 out a particle of wood. So we have iron harrows, iron cultivators, iron 

 planters, iron harvesters, iron thrashers, and iron mills. It is, in short, an 

 age of iron. It is an age too, of reason, and farmers should reason together 

 upon the new uses to which iron has been applied to facilitate the farmer's 

 business, and then each one should inquire of himself and his neighbor 

 whether he has adopted all the improvements in iron agricultural tools 

 which he could do with certain advantage to his business. 



Among other good uses of iron which I have lately seen, is the use of a 

 common iron pot — that old fashioned, round-bottom dinner-pot — for the 

 feed-box in a horse-stable. Iron pig-troughs have been some years in use, 

 and are to be commended, except where wood is cheap and labor cheaper. 



As this is such a day as we look for to make maple sap flow, I am re- 

 minded of the great convenience of using iron for the spouts to conduct the 

 sap into the buckets, which should be made of iron, either tin-plate or gal- 

 vanized, with an iron-wire rim, with a loop in it to hang upon an iron nail 

 driven into the tree. 



Speaking of nails, what an abuse of iron it is for farmers to live, as many 

 do, almost destitute of them ! It is better economy to have a pound of 

 them wasted, than it is to do without one when it is needed. None but 

 the most shiftless of farmers — ^just such as would do without a grindstone — 

 would try to get along without having a hammer and nails alwa;ys at hand. 



