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exceeded by no others, wherever they have been used. Their superiority consists in the length and curvature of the mould board, by which the sod is turned unbroken, and laid entirely flat, instead of angular. The beam is also so constructed that the draft is applied with the best possible advantage.— The work done by these ploughs at the ploughing match was very good, and your committee would recommend a premium to be given to Mr Samuel J. Barker, of Andover, who entered the ploughs, but are restrained by the terms of one of the rules of the society, which require that the improved implement shall be the invention of the exhibitor, in order to entitle him to the premium.

September 30, 1840.

ALLEN W. DODGE,
DANIEL MOULTON.

To J. W. Proctor, Esq.

DEAR SIR-I accompanied the old gentleman from the meeting-house, on cattle-show day, as you requested, and examined the horse hand rake, an invention of his son, who was with him and who was prevented from exhibiting it at the usual time, by his inability to find the committee. If you recollect, no other member of the committee but myself was present. Mr. Moulton acted with me, in examining the ploughs, as will be seen by the former report. can add the following to that report, if it can consistently be done.

Yours, respectfully,

You

ALLEN W. DODGE.

Hamilton, October 5, 1840.

To the Trustees of the Agricultural Society.

GENTLEMEN—At a late hour and after making the above report, Moses Noyes Adams, of Newbury,

exhibited to one of the committee for a premium, a wheel hand rake, of which he claims to be the inventor, and which appears, by the certificates annexed, to have been used and approved by practical farmers.

This rake is altogether different from the horse rake, but like that, is a great labor-saving machine. It is propelled by hand, by means of a pair of long handles or shafts, by which it is pushed along. The wheels are two feet in diameter, and support an axle-tree from eight to ten feet in length. To this axle-tree the teeth, thirty four in number and of steel, are attached; they are about eighteen inches long, slightly curved upwards where they meet the ground, and at their junction with the axle-tree have a slight play up and down, so as to pass stones and other obstructions without injury or impediment. A number of upright iron rods, say a foot long, are also inserted in the axle-tree, to receive the hay as it is taken up by the teeth. The only operation necessary for dropping the hay after the rake is filled, is to draw the rake towards you; by depressing the handles or shafts, the teeth, on the opposite side, are elevated, and you pass on without any material delay. In this particular, the wheels perform an important part, facilitating the passage of the rake over the hay thus deposited. Indeed, by means of the wheels, the rake glides along easily and rapidly, requiring not so much labor as the common hand rake to use it, while the work it performs is three or four times greater in amount.

It is, therefore, recommended that the premium of ten dollars be awarded Moses N. Adams, of Newbury, for his wheel hand rake. Whether or not it shall accomplish, on longer trial, the objects it designs and come into general use, it certainly evinces so much ingenuity in its plan and construction, as to merit the encouragement of this society.

It was with surprise, not to say regret, that no other agricultural implements, the new fruits of do

mestic skill, were observed at the fair, At the annual fair of the Royal Society of England, held in July last, the show of implements embraced no less than eighty six different ploughs, numerous threshing machines for horse and hand power, straw cutters, harrows, scarifiers, mowing machines, drill barrows, &c. It is true, that the premiums offered by foreign societies are well adapted to call forth invention and skill, and to excite competition. For example, in the list of premiums offered by the Scotch Agricultural Society for the present year, (nearly three hundred in number,) is one of twenty five hundred dollars for a steam machine for ploughing.

The agricultural societies of New England have no such splendid rewards to offer; but they stand ready to foster, as they are able, native talent, and to usher before the public eye, the results of its labors. Let, then, the mechanics, and the farmers of Essex county set their wits at work in devising and executing a larger number of improved implements for farming. Yankee ingenuity is busy in all the other departments of industry; that there is room for improvement here cannot be denied; that other countries are going ahead in agricultural mechanics must also be acknowledged. Shall New England; shall Essex county fall in the rear in the rapid march of agricultural improvement?

ALLEN W. DODGE.

Hamilton, October 5, 1840.

Copy of Certificates.

I have used Adams's Wheel Hand Rake and found it to be of great utility. I believe I can rake six acres in the same time that two acres can be raked by a common hand rake.

WILLIAM C. LANGLEY.

Newbury, October 1, 1840.

I hereby certify that Moses N. Adams has raked, with his wheel hand rake on two different lots of marsh for me, (in all I should think to the amount of two and a half acres,) and finished his work with unusual dispatch and to my perfect satisfaction.

EBENEZER LITTLE.

Newbury, October 1, 1840.

ON FRUITS AND FLOWERS.

It is said by our modern astronomers, that there has been a regular succession of warm and cold seasons for the last century, and according to their calculation, the warm summers commenced in 1837. Be this however as it may, we find fruits generally to have ripened earlier this season, than in the two previous years; cherries, which ripened in 1838 and 9, from the 4th to the 10th of July, were gathered the present year in June. Regarding the past season we have seldom, on the whole, known a more prolific one. Notwithstanding the early drought and the multiplicity of insects upon our trees, causing fruits to fall prematurely, it is gratifying to your committee to find so many exhibited, showing an increased attention to this department of cultivation. They believe that as a source of income, no pursuit could be more safely relied upon, than the cultivation of the finest winter apples, peculiarly suited to our region. We say peculiarly suited, for, while we acknowledge that the Newtown Pippen of Long Island, and Pennock's fine winter Apple, of Pennsylvania, with some other southern varieties, the fruit of which we occasionally receive, are very superior, yet, when grown with us, are inferior to our

Baldwin, Rhode-Island Greening, Minister, Hubbardston Nonesuch, and some others. The finest table apple known in the warm climate of Italy, (and which was exhibited here, this morning,) is with us, an indifferent cooking fruit. Your committee have endeavored to ascertain the name of each contributor, but in the hurry and bustle attendant on such occasions, there may have been some omissions.

Andrew Dodge, of Wenham, presented pears, apples and quinces of twenty one varieties. Gardner B. Berry, of Bradford, exhibited ten varieties of apples and pears. Robert Manning, of Salem, sent in fifty four kinds of pears and apples. Charles M. Brown, of Byfield, one barrel of fine Baldwin apples, marked "Blush Apple." They were, however, the true Pecker or Baldwin.

Fine specimens of fruit were exhibited by E. Emmerton, Salem; Eben'r Smith, Beverly; Peabody Russell, Boxford; Humphrey Nelson and James Peabody, of Byfield; Augustus Putnam, Danvers ; Moses Pettingel, of Topsfield; Abel Nichols, Danvers; I. B. Bateman, Georgetown; Simon Wardwell, Andover; Miss Ellen B. Dodge, Salem; Wm. Oakes, Ipswich; A. L. Peirson and John M. Ives, Salem.

Fine Corn was shown by Daniel Putnam, John Preston, and Abel Nichols, of Danvers; William Osborn, of Saugus ; Andrew Dodge, and John Colby, of Bradford; and Jacob F. Davis, of Newbury. Your committee could only notice particularly a few specimens. The eight-rowed variety of Wm. Williams, of Rowley, and John Preston, of Danvers, was good, particularly the former. The brindled corn (or Gov. Hill's famous variety) of Daniel Putnam, and which had obtained a former premium of this society, was fine; the bundle numbered 2, harvested by cutting the stalks at root, was bright, and we thought heavier than No. 1, which was harvested in the old way.

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