V. i
vices of a farm hand, while a good mechanic at any
overemployment wonld obtain tbrico that 'sum, A
man that had mechanical skiirsuGacicnt to whittle
out ft cider-tap, make a , wooden linchpin, and turn
a grindstone, would do very well for a farm hand,
provided bo was physically endued with the power
to work and possessed the will to do it. Perhaps
there was no business that required so little exercise,
of the intellectual faculties as farming under the old
re"gime.v Plow and sow in the spring, harvest in the
summer and' autumn, and thresh in the winter, about
covered the ground of neccssarr knowledge. .
Ail these things have undergono a change within
a few years. Tho best hand" now, employed upon a
farm is not the man who can cut the neatest swarth
or thresh,o'ut the most gram wfth a flail. Farm ma
chinery is working, a wonderful revolution in agri
cultural prdcesscsv ftndrig'doing much, of the work
better and much more rapidly tlian it was cxecijted
by the old hand process. Wo Tern ember atj old far-'
mcr who prided himself upon the splendid manner,
in which ho broadcast his seed wheat, and he would
point to the green field in tho fall after the grain was
up; proudly contrasting it with bis neighbor's streak
ed ground. But at length that neighbor purchased
a grain drill, ana luo corapansonuienceioru was
decidedly in his favor. The old farmer could never
speak complacently of a, grain drill afte'rwards, de
claring it would ruin all skill in sowing, and enable
a mere clodhopper to scatter seed 'equaMo the best
wheat-grower in the world. , ; f
Who would think at tho present day of Tailing
back upon the Hail to do the threshing orour grain ?
And yet, tho writer remembers to have heard it grave-
ly argued that ft threshing machine was a miserable
invention, and vastly inferior to the flail; that it was
far better for a farmer to hire a couple of men two
or three months in the winter to thresh out his wheat
than to havo it done by a machine in as many days.
" It spoiled the straw," it was said ; " the cattle would
not eat it half as well as tbey would that thrown out
day by day as threshed by a flail;" with other ar-'
guments equally as cogent, and which would now bo
regarded at leasrasvidences ot-paruai insanuyi-
The gang-plow, the wheelrculti vator, the hoc-rake, .
the corn-sheller, and, above -all, the mower and the
roapcr, are additional illustrations of the revolution
that is going on in tho agricultural departments of
human industry, brought about by tho direct appli
cation of scientific knowledge and invcntivo genius
in tho substitution of machinery for, manual labor.
All of our energetic agriculturists, are adopting
machinery more or less,-as their surplus means will
. admit ; and tho lively rattle of the mower and the
reaper will very soon, be heard, in innumerable fields
that never before, in gathering tho harvest, felt any-
thing but the slow-paced. movement of , the cradler
This intelligent desiro on the part of the former
to do their work- by machinery instead of human
muscle, has, within a few years, built up. large es
tablishments where agricultural; implements irV
made They rivals in many instances, the machine
shops, of manufactories and railroads, and employ
grcanumbcrs of men. The prominent objects in an'
agricultuiat warehouse arc no longer the plow, tho
ui,i,, aim me swjiui, uhuuujju iuih arc DJ DO UjCUUB
dispensed with, , -the mowerihe reaper, thVdriIlr
and other kindred instruments, now oVcupyjthcforc-
ground, and the farmer, well to do iu.thc wbrldays
as many dollars for a machine to do hisNvork as for-,
merly'fqr the simpler Instruments ho 'paid cents.
But the difference is more than compensated by tho
ra,pidityvana certainty witlr , which the work is cxe
cuted, and the reduced number of hands eninlm c'L
A few men in. the harvest-field at two dollars a day
very soon absorb the cntire cosf of a reaper. : -
In view of the. change4 which is taking, place in
cspecialjy the young, to educate themselves with some
reference to thesje pointsVi No human knowledge ever
came amlss.and we neverlieard ofi a man, farmer or
iiLiii i i inr. ii iiii niii-.ir liiii nun 11. iiiiiiiiiiimi ' i iirin hiul.
' . ' ' TV.- ---- . ' "O"
very iimuy iaummr insianpcs 01 lmiiviauais placing.
iuu iuiru uu vsiiiijuic uihui lueir unn uuiiiiics. i
thorough knowledge of Natural Philosophy, especi-
dlly in the department of mechanics, is of the high
est importance to the farmer; for in many oftho
implements, as rauch'skill is requfsite'to use them
successfully as , to use an ordinary steam-engine.Tho
tinc is not far distant,if indeed it is not to-day, whcn
good mechanical abilities will be' as much needed in
agriculture as in the trades, and will be as amply re
Wrded." '' ' ' ; '-- ''kK
TDE.ROLLER AND ITS ADVANTAGES
TnfinE is no agricultural implement so seldom met
with tn this country, perhaps, as tho roller ; and yet
it is one of the most useful of utensils.,- Where vour
trrAnrtit fe ectftnnA !nimr 'if-vnit JhftTnr-nAt. Atrnn in
b "-v- . "
pick up the stones upon it, you can roll them in, and
produce, at httlcj expense, a smoowand clean sur
face, rendering your fields'free from hummocka, and
fitting them' for'plowing and trio win And.it has
been mentioried by somo that the roller is-A'useful
tm piemen t upon ground in which the frost has heav
cd out he grass and clover- rooW. l It maypossesr
an ndrjintnrft In ttiis'rcsnecL and ho dount'wotild hfi
a fine thing to level and prjcss'down damp land wbert
cloVer.is sown, and would bo likely to heaveV; . ;
- Tho roller which we trbold recommend for "genef
aV advantage, .li made with twoBJaraU rolierr,oacli
-t