The Kanzas news., 1858-02-06
From the Valley Farmer.
Agricultural Progress Indebted to Ne
chanicaI Iaveution.

FROM the progress tDdt mas Deen MADE IN
the practice of agriculture, in the United
States, within the last thirty years, the
country is more indebted to the mechanic
than the farmer. Farmers, generally, have
been eontented to follow the practice of
their fathers-apparently under the settled
conviction that the business admitted of no
further improvement. The progress that
has been made in the art and practice of
farming has been more the result of neces-
sity on the part of farmers, in the introduc-
ton and use of the numerous valuable la
bor-saying machines, which the prolific
genius of American mechanics has pro-
duced, than from any desire to change the
practice of farming, with the view, alone, to
improvement. The mechanic, perhaps, is
no better educated than the farmer, but his
thoughts and inventive powers are constant
ly brought into action in The exercise of his
profession, and he naturally becomes self
educated. This opens the way for the in
vention of machinery for every department
of manufacturing, as well as to facilitate
and improve the various operations of
farming.
What, for instance, has Whitney done
for the planter, as well as the commercial
In 1890 the production of cotton waa 8, 500
bales, and in 1853 it amounted to 3.263,-
882 bales. This wonderful increase in the
production of this great American staple, is
due chiefly to this invention. Now the
production and trade in cotton are said to
control, in great degree, the capital and
commerce of the world. Indeed, it has,
with some truth. been said that e'cotton is
king" What Whitney has done for the
cotton planter hardly equals what the cele-
brated Arkwright achieved for the man
ufacturer.
But within the period assumed in the
introduction of this article, the greatest i'm
provement in agricultural implements and
machinery have been made, and with the
exception of the plow, we may reduce the
time to much narrower limits.
Until the improvements of Jethro Wood,
of the present generation, the plows used
by the American farmers were made gen
orally by themselves, or by the country
blacksmiths, in the rudest form, with wood
en- mouldboards, with two straight sticks,
surmounted with pair of cows horns, to
serve as handles. With these plows it was
difficult to turn furrow more than four
inches thick, while the blowing generally,
throughout the country, did not exceed three
inches in depth. The invention of Jethro
Wood, in substituting cast iron for the
wooden plow, brought into action a thousand
minds upon the subject. with the view to
still further improvement, substituting
wrought shares and points for the cast iron,
and at still later period, polished steel took
the place of iron, with corresponding i'm
IL,
would seem that further improvement is al
most impossible. These improvements in
the plow have necessarily led to correspond
ing improvement in blowing. Instead of
imperfectly turning furrow of but three
inches in depth, as with the old plow, these
improved implements will easily invert a
furrow six or eight inches in thickness
pulverizing the soil In the most perfect man
ner. What has been the result of this i'm
provement in practice to the farmer? We
answer, that in many soils the yield per
acre, of crops in general, has been at least
doubled, by affording deeper and more thor
ough pasturage for the roots of plants,
while the waste of land, by washing is far
less than formerly. What is true of the
plow in these respects may also be said of
numerous other machines, now in daily use.
We well remember when it was very rare
thing to meet with an iron -toothed harrow.
The ground if narrowed at all, was very inn
perfectly done, and as for a roller, such an
implement was almost entirely unknown
With the plow of the present day, the har
row and the roller, such improvement may
be made in the mechanical preparation of the
soil, for all crops, as once led the great En-
glish farmer, Tull, to the mistaken conclu-
sion that he had arrived at the ultimate linn
its of improved farming.
Another modern invention is the wheat
drill. which is working mighty revolution
in wheat growing in this country. Like
many other important inventions, the farm
er is last to appreciate its merits, but its ad
vantages have finally become known in GER
tain neighborhoods, and the demand for
them seems even to exceed that for the reap
ing machine.
In a late number of the Dayton (Ohio)
Journal, it is stated that there are four man
ufacturing establishments in that flourish
ing city, that together have made the pres
ent season, g, 600 wheat drills-worth 1892
600. These machines, it may be presumed,
have mostly gone into the hands of the
farmers. Four years ago, there was but
one firm in that city who made them, and
but few farmers then could be found willing
to try them. Experience has now establish
ed the fact, that the drilled wheat will yield
from five to eight bushels more per acre than
that which is sown broadcast, besides saw
ing of 25 per cent in the quantity of seed
sown. We think it viii be within the truth,
if we estimate the quantity of seed sown
each year, with these 1890 machines, at
100 acres each making e96, 900 acres, es-
timating the increase per acre obtained by
the superior manner of seeding secured by
them, at the lowest estimate of five bushels
per acre, it viii amount to I ,480, 600 bush
els. Add to this one peck of seed saved