Methods of Economizing Labour. 
129 
owing to the difficulty experienced in raising hedges. Quick does 
not succeed well in a hot and dry climate ; buckthorn does better, 
but is not general : but it is probable that two indigenous thorny 
plants, the Osage orange and the Cherokee rose, will be found 
to answer the purpose well. I mention this, as I have done 
various other points, in the hope that this paper may be seen 
by, and furnish a hint or two to, some of our colonists who dwell 
in lands resembling in climate and other conditions the United 
States. 
To return to the subject of implements. The common hay 
and stubble spring-tooth horse rake is a cheap and useful imple- 
ment, in which the requisite degree of elasticity is given to the 
teeth by the simple method of coiling the wire, just as the spring 
in which a bell is hung is coiled. The price of this is SO*". 
■ This and a more elaborate iron rake, resembling Page's, are 
superseding the old wooden turn-over hay-rake, which, though 
ingenious and serviceable, drags heavily on the ground. For 
drilling and for broadcast sowing they have horse machines like 
ours, but a simple V-shaped wooden trough, perforated with 
holes, is sometimes made to answer the purpose : it is carried 
in front of the sower, slung by a belt over his shoulders, and as 
he shakes it in walking the seed falls through. This "sower" 
is sometimes improved by being traversed by a wooden roller 
with an India-rubber band wound spirally round it, transforming 
it into an Archimedean screw, which is made to revolve and brush 
the seed out by turning a handle. 
The weeding among crops sown broadcast is performed with a 
hand " scuffle " hoe ; the double-edged blade of which, set at an 
angle of 45° with the handle, enables the backward as well as 
forward stroke to tell. 
An implement for ploughing up potatoes has been lately in- 
vented, and is already coming; into extensive use. It resembles 
a double mould-board plough, the peculiarity being that the 
mould-board has longitudinal slots, through which the earth 
passes, whilst the potatoes are thrown out on each side. This, 
by substituting a common double mould-board, is rendered ser- 
viceable for hilling up. The price is 8 to 10 dolls., about 21. 
If it does its work well (and I believe it gives satisfaction), it is 
much more economical than the lately-invented English potato- 
digger. 
And if it be argued, as it frequently is with reference to this 
question of first cost, that the English agriculturist is determined 
to have the best implement, cost what it may, I answer that this 
recklessness of expense may be carried too far. In the case of 
permanent structures, expense at first frequently proves economy 
in the end ; but when we consider that the best of implements 
VOL. XX. K 
