Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1870-11-30
FARM, GARDEN AND HOUSEHOLD.
Farm implements.
nv HORACE GREELEY

Farm implements.
BY HORACE GREELEY.
A good workman, it is said, does no
quarrel with his tools winch. if true,
judge is due to the fact that he general,
manages 10 have good ones To worl
hard throughout q long day under burn
ing suns is sufficiently trying, without ren
dering the labor douhly repugnant by th,
use of ill-eontrived, imperfect, >ineficien
implements.
The half-centnry which nearly bound
my recollection has witnessed great i'm
proyements in this respect. The Plow
mainly of wood, wherewith my father
broke up his stony, hide-bound acres o
New Hampshire pebbles and gravel, in my
early boyhood, would now be spurned i
offered as gift to tho poorest and most
thrlttless farmer among us; and the hoes
which were allotted to us boys in those
days, after the newer and better had been
assigned to the men, would be rejected
witn disdain by the stupidest negro in
Virginia. Though there is still room for
improvement, We use far better implements
than our grandfathers did, with a CORES.
ponding increase in the efficiency of oul
labor; but the cultivatoIs of Spain, Portu-
i ga, and the greater part of Europe still
linger in the dark ages i'll this respect.
Their p'ows are little better than the fork
ed sticks which served their barbarian an.
cestors, and their implements generally
are beneath contempt. With such imple-
msnts, deep and thorough culture is
simply impossible, unless by the use of the
spade; and he must be hard worker who
produces peck of Wheat or half a bushel
OF Indian Corn per day by the exclusive
use of this tool. The soil of France is SO
cut up and subdivided into little strips of
two or thr6e roods up to as many acres
each-each strip forming the entire
patrimony of q family-that .agricul-
| tural advancement or efficiency is,
with the great mass Of French
| cultIvators out of the question. Hence,
| judge that, outside of Great Britain and
! Australia. there is no country wherein an
average years work produces half so much
| grain as In our own; in spite of our SLOW
enly tillage, our neglect and waste of fer
tilizars, and the frequent failures of cur
| harvests. Belgium, Holland, and North
ern France, can teach us neatness and
thoroughness of cultivation; the British
Isle may fairly boast of larger and surer
crops OF wheat, oats, potatoes and grass
than we are accustomed to secure; but in
the selection of implements, ard in the
ers are ahead of them all.
Bear with me, then, while I interpose a
timid plea for our inventors and patentees
of implements, whose solicitations that a
trial, or at least an inspection, be accorded
to their several contrlvances, are too often
repelled with churlish rudeness. / realize
that our thriving farmers are generally alb
sorbed in their own plans and efforts, and
| that the agent or salesman who insists on
| an examination of his new harrow, or pitch
| fork, or potato digger, is often extravagant
| in his assumptions, and sometimes bore.
Still, when | recollect how tedious and how
back-breaking were the methods of mow-
ing grass and reaping grain with the scythe
and sickle, which held unchallenged sway in
my early boyhood, [ 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
horse hoe or tedder, to give the time, if he
can; and that without sour looks or mien
of stoid incredulity. The Biblical moni-
tion that. IN eyincing q 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
! tCrm OF a thoroughly good one. Give the
inventor or his representative a courteous
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.
1 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
! pulverizing the earth, applying fertilizers
TO the soil, planting or sowing rapidly,
eradicating weeds economiZipg labor in
harvesting, &C., will 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 a school dis
triet if not of a township, TO meet and
agree among themselves that one will buy
| this implement, another that, and SO on,
until twenty or thirty such devices as b
Stump or Rock Puiler, Clod- -Crusher,
Thrashing- Machine, Fanning-Mill, &C.,
shall be owned il the neighborhood- each
by separate farmer, willing to live and
let live with an understanding that each
shall be used in turn by him who needs it;
and so everyone shall be nearly as well ac-
commodated as thoughghe owned them all.
For the number and variety Of useful
implements increase so rapidly, while
their usefulness is SO palpable, that. though
it is difficult to farm efficiently without
many if not most of them, it 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
| onlr ba aEsura6 hy Snnh a oQf,t
as have suggested, wherein each under.
takes to provide and keep that which he
will most need agreeing TO lend it when.
ever it can be spared to any other member
of the combination, who undertakes to
minister in like manner to has need in fe
| turn. :Gf
I think few will doubt that the inven
tions in aid of Agriculture during the last
! forty years will be far surpassed by those
| of the forty years just before u.s. The
magnificent fortunes which, il is currently
understood, have rewarded tie inventors
of the more popular Mowers, Reapers, &c.
of our day, are sure TO stimulate alike The
ingenuity and the avarice OF clever mer
throughout the coming years, and to Cal
! into existence ten thousand patents where
of hundred will be valuable, and en- ol
twelve eminently useful. Flowing lan(
| tree from StunpS ana stones cannot IOnE
be the tedious, patience-trying process VIZ
have known it. The machinery which viii
st once pulverize the soil to a depth of two
feet, fertiGze and seed it, not requiring i
to be tramped by the hoofs Of animal
employed III subsoiling and narrowing
viii soon be in general use, especially on
the spacious, deep. inviting prairies of th'
| Great West. But L must defer what
have to say of Steam and it's uses in Agri
culture to future essay.
A SAD AFFAIR. Lyons, Iowa, is deeply
| excited over the death Of little Lee Gun
ningham, pupil in the city school LIE
was regular pupil in Miss Hudson
room, but spent portion of his time il