Inventions And Farmers

The progress of invention and improvement in recent years has beneflted tha whole people immensely, butnone more than the farmers. In fact it has wrought what may be fairly called a revolution in farm industry, benefiting and altering for the better the lives of bota men and women. The farm tools and implements used to-day were, attired in their present forms, unknown fifty years ago; and many of them- the most important and the most widely used, wero not invented fifty years ago. This is true alike of the tools used by tha farmer and his sons, in the fields, and by the farmer's wife and her daughters, in tha house. Many things that were forraerly disagreeable and toilsome drudgery have becorae almost pleasures, what was forraerly done by hard hand labor being now performed by machinery drivan by steam or drawn by horses in the fields, and much ol the hardest labor of the household also being perfortned with machines and improved tools, that used to require weary hours of hard and slow work. Ia no field of labor has tbe genius of invention wrought more marvelous or more beneficial ohanges. FARMERS WORKED LIKE SLAVES, (rom the earliest dawn of day to the last lingering light of evening, fifty years ago, and then did the chores and mended their tools by the light of the great fire-plaoe or a tin lantern furuished with a tallow dip. And their wives toiled earlier, later, and still more incessantly. The outfit of a farmer in 1840, even if he were pretty well off, was about as folio ws in the way of tools and iniplements: One heavy lumber wagon (old style and clumsy) ; two plows (heavy of their kind) and a harrow, also a heavy and clumsy implement; heavy hoes, a heavy spade, a heavy pitchfork, rake, sheep shears; one log chain; onechain lor wagon, plows and narrows; narnesses, ir h had horses; yoke for cattle (home-made) ; ax, a few carpenter's tools (every farmer was then his own carpenter), iron wedge for splitting rails, flails (home-made) ; cast iron shoes for sled or sleigh (had to make the sleigh himself , and it was heavy and s trong enough for logging) ; two iron rings for a maul (made the maul himself) ; eradle and scythes for cutting grain and hay by hand labor. That was a pretty good outfit, too, for those times. The wife's outfit was fully as meager. She was LUCKT ir SHK HAD A CHURN. Oenerally she hadn't; but had to use a tal] jar, for which her husband made a wooden cover with a hole in it through which to ply a home-made dasher. Some had rude cook stores, but more depended upon the wide fire-place and chimney. Her poes and pana werë few and heavy, her dishes ditto. Often s'ae had a big loom and spindles with which she spun the yarn and made the cloth for the fiimily, and then had to be milliuer, dressmaker and taïioress for the whole concern, men and boys, women and children. The light steel plows of all sorts, the cultivators, clod crushers, threshing machines, corn huskers and shellers, hay cutters, seed and grain drills, feed grinding milis, separators, light steel spades, forks, hoes and rakes, and the scores of other handy tools and implements of to-day were tótally unknown. And so were THE HOUSEHOLD TOOLS now so common. The sewing machine, dierry stoner, apple peeier and corer, knitting machiae, the elegant cook stove with all its lurniture, and dozens of other tools that the modern housewife must have, were not then invented. Life on a farm was then a perpetual wearing grind of hard manual labor. Young men of to-day can hardly realize what farm lifa used to be; but the oíd pioneers can teil them what a wonderful differenca invention and improvement have made. This improvement is still going on. Each year briuns out new inventions that beeome necessaries in a short time. Modern farm life has bepome something like manufacturing, and the modern farmer, with bis fine tools and machines, naeds to be sometbing of an educated mechanic. farmers' fairs now-a-days are devotsd as much or more to th diaplay of macninery and tools as to agricultural produce. In fact, the shows of implements and machines are generally the most important part. They give farmers opportunities to compare and select the best implements and machines, upon which his success dow so greatly depetítís, and which make his work rapid, easy and profltable. But no ordinary farmers' fair can adequately display what he needs. It requires a grcat exposition to which Jl WHOLE CONTINENT CONTBIBÜTKS exbibiU of tbs latest inventions, improvenients and adaptations in labor saving machines and tools, so tbat the farmer can hav all the advantages of a great gathering of the best and latest. Such a display will be afforded by the Detroit International Ezposition, Sept. 17 to 27, when no less than flfleen acres of space will ba completely covered with exhibits of all sorts of farm machines and implements, from the latest plow to the big steam thveshing machine, and from the best hoe io the most economical portable engine. Besides, the vast machinery hall will be full of machines and tools, many of which are used by farmers. And the farmer's wife will flnd also all the best bousehold utensils and tools, from the very latest cooking range, sewing machine, and churn, down to the neatest device for making butter pots, the latest fruit jar or can, or the newest patent crochdt machine. And there will be also A WORLD OF OTHER ATTRACTIONS; grand concerts, band and other tournaments, games, processions, races, a grand display of paintings and statuary in a great art gallery, and everything that invention, manufacturen, or commerca has to sbow that ia beautiful, rare, costly, curious useful.