112 
Amei ican Implements, and 
rare Indeed is it to find a Yankee lass who will consent to be a 
drudge in any house but her own, and it is the custom to marry 
so early that there are but few who are not in this position. 
Hence the amazing variety of machines and contrivances for 
economizing or evading labour ; hence the many ingenious 
methods of using up any and every source of power. Of these we 
occasionally see specimens in England ; and some of the most 
important, as the reaping and mowing-machines, are even here 
beginning to overcome the prejudices against novelty, to move 
the vis inertia; of custom, and to wrestle with the more formid- 
able obstacles arising from the gross ignorance of the simplest 
mechanical principles, which, to our shame, is suffered to exist 
amongst the uneducated labourers of England. The history of 
this reaping-machine is remarkable : invented originally in Scot- 
land, and, like many other useful inventions, long neglected, it 
was at length taken up in a field where the inducement to perfect 
it was far greater than here ; brought over thence for the Exhibi- 
tion of '51 as an American invention, it was admired as a 
curiosity, but found little suitable to English requirements ; has 
since received various improvements, together with endless modi- 
fications of detail ; and at last been brought to a high state of effi- 
ciency by various English firms, esjiecially by that of Burgess 
and Key, whose reaper with the screw delivery last year carried 
off the prize from all the American machines in the State of New 
York. Nor is this a solitary instance of the neglect in England 
of a useful contrivance, its adoption in America, and re-introduc- 
tion thence into England, 
There may be seen now at Manchester an old and rusty 
machine, constructed years ago, which appears identical with 
one of the most popular of the American sewing-machines lately 
brought out. The humble inventor of this English machine dietl 
in poverty, whilst the American duplicate is sold by thousands, 
strains the powers of a vast factory to supply the demand, and is 
doubtless the source of great wealth to its fortunate owners, as 
well as of immense convenience to the ladies in a land where 
seamstress is a word unknown. 
In reference to our immediate subject of agriculture, the facul- 
ties of the Anglo-Saxon race have been developed in each hemi- 
sphere as different exigencies have called them into action. The 
Englishman, having a very limited area on which to raise food 
for a population of 223 to the square mile, has applied his intel- 
ligence to rendering this little as productive as possible; iience 
all tlie great discoveries in agriculture, for deepening tlie land 
and increasing the fertility of the soil, are his. The American, 
on the other hand, having a boundless wilderness to subdue, over 
which liis race is scattered in the proportion of less than 8 to 
