134 
STATE AGEICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 
strengthen prejudice and to create a repugnance to the trial, of 
new implements, and to striking out into novel and untried 
experiments. 
Why, even no longer ago than when he was a boy, which 
he said, was’nt such an everlasting while, noth withstanding a 
few gray hairs to the contrary, such a thing as a reaping 
machine was never heard of as a practical implement on the 
farm. Most of the wheat and rye had to be gathered with the 
sickle, and a day’s work at reaping was by no means calculated 
to enable one to practice the Grecian bend. Such a thing as 
a threshing machine was very rare in the back country towns, 
and those we had were slow and inefficient compared with 
those of the present day. Most of our grain had to be sepa¬ 
rated with the common flail. 
“ Thump after thump resounds the constant flail 
That seems to swing uncertain and yet falls 
Full on the destined ear.” 
He had even driven the cattle day after day to tread out the 
grain on the barn door, not by way of experiment to see if the 
thing could be done, but in real earnest, week in and week 
out, as if it were the best way in the world. What a waste of 
human power and time! 
Hor was the want of other labor-saving implements less 
general. Our smaller tools, the shovels, the hoes, the rakes, 
the forks, all the essential implements of the farm, in fact, 
were rude and imperfect, and required a vast expenditure of 
strength, to say nothing of time and patience, while the power 
to accomplish results was also limited, and much time and 
labor lost, or unproductive. But how is it now ? 
The reaper, the thresher and the mower are types of the 
ever restless and progressive spirit of the age. They point 
out to us a glorious future, in which they will accomplish for 
us and for our country, triumphs grander far than the triumphs 
of arms, for they will develop the means ot supporting the 
millions of human beings which the implements of war can 
only destroy. 
