12G 
American Implements, and 
After a voyage of 800 miles through the great lakes it reaches 
Buffalo, there is transferred by elevators again to barges, which 
convey it by the Erie Canal to Albany, and thence down the 
Hudson towed by steam to New York. And what has this long 
transport of above 12C0 miles, together with the various trans- 
shipments, cost ? — the expense may generally be set down at 14 
cents (Id.^ per bushel. What would it have cost if carried, in the 
orthodox English way in sacks, out of the hold on men's backs, 
then in a ponderous waggon for several miles, &c. &c. ? 
Having thus landed the cern at New York (for shipment to 
England, at the cost of another 6rf. or 7rf.), let us return to the farm. 
The harrow most used is the Geddes's folding one, of a V- 
shape, divided longitudinally, and the two parts hinged together, 
so as to admit of either being instantly raised by the driver, a 
very convenient form in fields encumbered with stumps or 
boulders, and also for getting rid of twitch and rubbish. The 
weeding of the crops is, as may be supposed, almost entirely per- 
formed by the horse-hoe, and that in most request is a light and 
simple one, costing 8 dollars. In planting the Indian corn, 
which is by far their largest crop, particular attention is paid to 
setting the plants at regular intervals, so as to admit of the 
horse-hoe and the corn-hiller traversing the field in every direc- 
tion. The corn or potato-hiller is an implement furnished with 
mouldboards which may be set to converge at any angle, so as 
to throw up as wide or narrow a ridge as may be desired. 
The entire system of American agriculture favours this substi- 
tution of animal for manual labour. Where wheat is grown as 
the principal crop, the rotation is red clover, wheat, Indian corn, 
wheat ; or else clover, and white crop, alternately ; the clover being 
sown in spring and ploughed in before ripening its seed, together 
with the weeds, which soon perish beneath the parching heats of 
summer, and leave the land clean for the autumn sowing. The 
corn crop answers to our turnip crop, is, like it, a cleansing one, 
and is at least parallel to it in importance, the animals on the 
farm being almost entirely kept during the long winter on this 
grain, together with its husks and stalk, which are full of saccha- 
rine matter. The negroes in the South live entirely on corn and 
pork. 
Such a rotation as this is calculated to keep the land in heart 
with but little labour, and to economize the carting out of manure, 
which is usually done, if at all, but once in the rotation — pre- 
paratory to the corn crop. 
This crop (corn) furnishes an instance of the great economy of 
labour effected by the use of a simple machine. The annual 
cost of shelling the corn from the cob by hand was estimated by 
a political economist some years ago at four millions of dollars ; 
