AMERICAN VERSUS ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 279, 5 June 1873, Page 7

AMERICAN VERSUS ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS.

(" Boston Journal of ChanuUy") There is something quite amusing in English prejudice, especially that which prevails in regard to our agricultural tools. It appears that we make but one tool which is conceded to be superior to their own, and that is the hay-fork. The English agriculturists have been forced to admit that our light, springy hay-forks are better than their clumsy and dull implements, and we found this tool ou sale in stores, and in use in the fields in all parts of Eugland. This is curious enough, when we conder that they are not ignorant of the nature of most of our tools, and the dullest comprehension ought to be able at once to see their general superiority. The English implements are very heavy. Not one of any kind can be found bat what contains twice or thrice times as much iron or steel as is needed. Labourers cannot do as much work in ji day with their heavy shovels, hoes, and spades as they can with onr sharpcutting, light, elastic tools, and we think the latter will last as long. English ploughs are ikdeed a curiosity. We measured the length of a plough in use in a field, and it was more than ten feet long, and would work probably th-ee times as much as the ploughs would in soils of a similar character. There were attached to the beam, next the horses, two stout wheels of sufficient diameter to be used upon a market waggon. It would be interesting to see an American farmer following one of those ploughs, and to notice the headlands made with it. Lust year we induced au English friend visiting this country to take back with him an assort of our tools for use upon his splendid farm iv Cumbeilaud county. The result of the trials we were much interested to learn, and the Srst question asked upon reaching his mansion related to the success of the implements. We cuttkl not learn that one of tii3m had been put to practical trial. The farm superintendent and the laboreis decided in advance that the tools were " too light " for their soil, and no they had been thrown aside unused. This objection apjieared extraordinary when we walked over the cle<tu mellow fields, ireo from roots, stumps, and stones, and we could not avoid expressing some indignation at thi3 absurd inanifostioa of prejudice. The cost of usin^ heavy inconvenient tools will be felt more sensibly in Eugiaud when the wages -of laborers reach a point corresponding to those in this country. Ploughs which require two of their noblo farmhorse3 to move can do no batter work thaa our light ones, and these caa be drawn easily by one horse, aud thaa an immense saving can be made. It manifestly cannot be long before a radical change will be made in the construction of agricultural tools in England.

A young couple planned an elopement, the girl descending from her room upon the traditional ladder, but at the gate they were met by the father of the girl and the minister, by whom the young couple were escorted to the parlor, where to their surprise they found -all their relatives collected for the marriage ceremonies, which took place at once. It wag a neat paternal freak. Not near as neat na that of a fond parent we know of. He heard his daughter and her lover plan an elopement. The next day the old man waited upon the young man and addressed him thus: — il You're a fine, brave youth, and I don't object to your for a son-in-law. Here's a hundred to aid in the elopement. May you live happily in the same house, and may no accident occur to throw the least shade on the the sunshine of your life. All I request is thai you elope with my daughter — she's a nice girl, you. know, but somehow her mother and I could never travel smoothly with her ; we don't know her good points — elope with her to such a distance that she won't return to her loving father and mother any more. Good-bye, sonny, &nd may you be happy." There was an elopement that evening of one. The young man went unaccompanied, He thought everything couldn't, be entirely right when the father \va3 so anxious to get rid of the girl. The father looks upon his act as a very neat bit of strategy. There ia a Mr. Johnson somewhere with a glass eye, who is giving the Police in America art infinity of trouble. The detectives of Boston, says the " New Fork Tribune," in a i-aae given them to work up, wanted a man named Johnson, who had a glass eye. They found such a person in Ranger. Maine, and he was the wrong gentleman. They found another Johnson, in Salem, Massachusetts, also with a glass ey, and he too proved to be- an innocent man. Then they received a telegram from Newburyport, Massachusetts, stating that a Johnson with a glass eye had been arrested there, anil he likewise proved to be the wrong person. there is a forth Johnson in existence with a glass eye, and the Boston authorities would like to find him. At present, hum ver, the difficulty seems to be to discover any cue who 13 njt JjLu&u-n with a glass .'ye.