New-York tribune., 1870-10-15
WHAT KNOW OF FARMING
ny HORACE GREELEY.
FARM IMPLEMENTS.

sum- is sufficiently trying without rendering the labor
doubly repugnant by the use of illcontrVed inper-
feet, inefficient implements.
The half-century which nearly bounds my recollec-
ton has witnessed great improvements in this re-
spect. The Plow, mainly Of wood, wherewlth my
father broke up his stony, hidebound acres OF New
Hampshire pebbles and gravel, in my early boyhood'
would now be spumed If offered as gut 10 the
poorest and most thrftess farmer among u.s. ana 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 with disdain by the stupdest
negro in Virginia. Though there is still room for
Improvement we use far better implements than our
prandfathers did. with a corresponding increase in
the efficiency of our labor; but the cultiyators Of
Spain Portugal and the greater part of Europe, still
lnger in the dark ages in this respect. Their plows
are little better than tho fOkod sticks which served
their barbarian ancestors and their implements gem
erally are beneath contempt With such Implements.
deep and thorough culture is simply impossible, I'M
less by the use of the spade; and he must be hard
worker who produces peck Of Wheat OF half n
bushel of Indian Corn per day by the exclusive use
of this tool The soil of France is so cut up and
subdvded into little strips Of two or three roods up
TO as many acres each-esch strip forming the entire
patrimony Of a famly-that agricultural advance
ment or efficiency is with the great mass OF French
cultivators out of the question. Hence judge that,
outside IF Great Britain and Australia, there is no
country wherein an average years work produces
half 80 much grain as in our own in spite Of our
slovenly tlage our neglect and waste of fertilizers
and the frequent failures of our haryests Belgium,
Holland and northern France, can teach us neaness
and thoroughness Of cultivation; the British isles
may fairly boast Of larger and srer crops OF Wheat
Oats Potatoes and Grass than we are accustomed to
secure; but in the selection of implements, and IN
the average efficiency of labor our best farmers
ahead of them all.
Bear with me, then, while interpose a timid plea
for our inventors and patentees of implements,
whose solicitations that trial or at least an inspec
on be accorded to their several contyances are too
often repelled with churlsh rudcness. Ireaze that
our thriving farmers are generally absorbed in their
own plans and efforts and that the agent salesman
who insists examination of his new harrow, or
or potatOdiggeT is often eXTayagant In
his assumptions, and sometimes bore. Still, when
/ recOllect how tedious and how backbreaking were
the methods of moving Grass and reaping Grain
with the Scythe and Sickle which held unchallenged
sway in my early boyhoOd. | entreat the farmer
who is petitiOncd TO accord ten or fifteen minutes
TO the setting forth, by some Grant stranger,
of the merits Of his new horse-hOe or tedder give
the time if he can; and that without looks
mien Of stolid incredulity. The Biblical mOnition
that. in eyincing a generous hospitality, We may
sometimes entertain angels mawares, seems tome in
point. new implement n.y be defective and
worthless and yet contain the germ or suggest the
form Of thoroughly good Give the inventor or his
representative courteous hearing if yOu can, even
though this should constrain you to make mp the
time 50 lost after the days work would otherwise
have ended.
I hot tho fa -
ly rural districts would be surprised if instructed
by days careful scrutiny of the contents of of
our great implement warehouses So many and such
various and ingenious devices for pulverizing the
earth, applying fertilizers TO the soil, planting
sowing rapidly. eradicating weeds economizing
labor in harvesting. &c, will probably transcend
not merely his experience, but his imagination; and
every one Of these myriad implements is useful in
its place though no single farmer afford 10 buy
oil OF half Of them Ii will yet, think, be found
bv the farmers of school-distTct if not
Of q township, to meet and agree among themselves
that viii buy this implement, another that, aud
so on until twenty or thirty such devices as Stump
or RockPuller, Clod-Crusher, Thrashing- Machine,
Fanning- Mill, &C. shall be owned in the neighbor
hood-each by separate farmer willing 10 live and
let liye-with an understanding that each shall be
used in turn by him who needs it; and so everyone
"
owned them all
For the number and variety Of useful implements
increase so rapidly while their usefulness is pal
pabe, that though it is difficult to farm efficiently
without many if not most Of them, ii 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 al hand; but
this can only be assured by some such arrangement
as have suggested wherein each undertakes 20 pro-
vide and keep that which he viii most need, agree
ing to lend il whenever be spared to any other
member Of the combination, who undertakes to min
lister in like manner TO his need in return.
think few will doubt that the inventions in aid
of Agriculture during the last forty years will be far
surpassed by those of the forty years inst before
The magnificent fortunes which, it is currently un-
derstood. have rewarded the inventors of the more
popular Mowers Reapers &c, Of our day, sure TO
stimulate alike the ingenuity and the ayarice of
clever throughout the roming years and to call
into existence ten thousand patents, whereof hund
red will he valuable, and ten twelve eminently
useful. Flowing land free from stumps and stones
cannOtlong be the tedious patience-trying
have known it. The machinery which will at once
pulverze the soil to a depth of two feet ferze and
seed it, not requiring it to be tramped by the hoofs
of animals employed in subsoiling and narrowing
will soon be in general use especially the spacious
deep, inviting prairics Of the Great West-But
must defer what have to say Of Steam and its
in Agriculture to future essay.
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