Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1870-11-24
Aarifultnrai.
Farm. GARDES AND HOUSEHOLD,

BY HORACE GREELEY.

nudge is due to the fact that he generally
manages 10 have good ones. TO work
hard throughout long day under a onrn'
ING sun, is efficiently tying, without rem
derine the labor doubly repGgnant by the
use OF illcontrive9, imperfect inefficient
implements.
The haif-censnry which nearly bounds
my recollection has witnessed great I'M
provements in this respect. Inc Plow,
mainly of wood, whereRith nay father
broke up his stony, aidebonnd acres OF
New Hampshire pebb es and gravel IN ray
early bOyheod, would now DO spurued II
offered as q eiit to the poorest AND most
tnriftless farmer among as; and the hoes
which tere allotted to us boys IN those
DAYS. after the newer and better had been
assIgped to the men, would be rejected
with disdain by the stupidest negro IN
virginia. Though there Is still room for
luprovemeut, we use far better implements
than OR prandiathers did, with cores
poading increase in the efficiency of oar
labor, but the cultigators of Spain, Portu-
aal. aud the greater part Of Europe, Sell
Hnpar in the dark ages IN This respect
Their plows are little better than the tork.
ed sticks which served their barbarian an
CrHJ8FSt qua tI4t4i AL iANthSAA' tN'A-N'|'AS
ore beneath contempt. With such impie-
ments, deep and thorough culture IS
simply impossible, unless by the use o, the
spade, and he must be q hard worker VINO
produces peck OF Wheat or hall bushel
of Indian Corn per day by the exclusive
use Of this tool The soil Of France 10 so
cut up and undivided into little strips OF
two or three rood5 mp 70 as many acres
each-each strip forming the entire
patrimony Of tamily--that agricul-
turai advancement or efficiency ~,
with the great mass OF French
eultlvators out Of tho question. Hence,
| nudge that, outside Of Great Britain and
Australia, there is DO country wherein an
average years work produces half 30 much
grain as in our own; in spite OF our sloV'
emily tillsge, our neglect and w,-5te OF Ter
tilizers, and the frequent failures OF our
haryests. Belgium, Holland, and North
ern France, can teach III neatnts5 aud
thoroughness OF cultivation; She British
Isles may fairly boast OF larger and suTcr
crops OF wheat oats, potatoes and grass
than We are accustomed TO secure, Dut IN
the selection OF implements, and IN the
average efficiency Of labor, our best farm.
ers are ahead of them all.
Bear with me, then, while | interp0se q
timid Plea for our inventors and patentevs
of implements whose solicitations that a
trial, or at least an inspection, be accorded
10 their several contryances, are too often
repealed with chUrlish rudeness. / realize
tina. our thriving farmers are generally alb
sorbed in their own plans and Efforts, and
that the agent or salesman who Insists on
al examination of his new harrow, or pitch
fork or potato digger, is often extravaganza
in his assumptions, and sometimes bore.
Still, when | recollect how tedious and how
bsck-breaking were the methods of now
ing grass and reaping grain with the scythe
and sickle, which held unchallenged sway in
my early boyhood, l entreat the farmer
who is petitioned to accord ten or fifteen
minutes to the setting forth, by some ar
rant stranger, of the merits of his new
horseshoe or tedder, to give the time, II he
can; and that without sour looks or a mien
of stolid incredulity. The Biblical mont
ton that, in evlncing generous hospital
ity, we may sometimes entertain angels
unawares, seems TO me in point A new
implement may be defective and worthless,
and yet contain the germ or suggest the
form of u thoroughly good one. Give the
hearing if you can, even though this should
constrain you to make up the time so lost
after the days work would otherwise have
ended.
suspect that the average farmer of our
completely rural districts would be sur
prised, if not instructed by days careful
scrutiny of the contents OF one OF our great
implement warehouses. So many and
such various and ingenious devices for
pulyerizing the earth, applying fertilizers
TO the soil, planting or sowing rapidly,
eradicating weeds, economiaing labor in
harvesting. &c, viii probably Transcend
not merely his experience, but his imagi
nation; and every one OF these myriad I'M
plements is useful IN its place, though no
single farmer can afford to buy all or half
of them. 1t will yet, ! think, be found
necessary by the farmers OF SCHOOL, dis.
tfiet, il not of n township, 10 meet aud
agree among themselves tina. one Will buy
this implement, another that, aud 80 on,
until twenty or thirty such devices as q
Stump or Rock Fuller, a Clod-Crusher,
Thrashing- Machine, Fanning-M Mill, &C.,
shall be owned in the neghbOrhood each
by separate farmer, willing TO hve and
let hve-with an understanding that each
shall be used in turn by him who needs it;
and SO everyone shall be nearly as well nc
commodated as thoughshe owned them all.
For the number and variety OF useful
implements increase so rapidly, while
their usefulness is 30 palpable, that though
it is difficult TO farm efficiently without
many If not most of them, 1t is impossible
that the young farmer OF moderate means
should buy and keep them all. True, he
might hire when he needed, If what he
wanted were always at hand; but this can
only be assured by some such arrangement
as ! Lave suggested, wherein each under
takes to provide and keep that which he
will most need, agreeing to lend j. when
ever it can be spared to any other member
Of the mbination. who undertakes to
minister in like manner to has need in re.
turn.
think few will doubt that the inven-