machine not only are all textile fabrics operated upon, but even the
thickest leather is dealt with, and as a _tour de force_, but as a
matter of fact, sheet-iron plates themselves have been pierced, and
have been united by a seam no boilermaker ever contemplated, the
piercing and the seam being produced by a Blake sewing machine. I
believe all in this section will agree that the use of the sewing
machine has been unattended by loss to those who earn their living by
the needle; in fact, it would not be too much to say that there has
been a positive improvement in their wages.

The next matter I have to touch upon is


AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY.

In 1831, we had thrashing machines and double plows, and even multiple
plows had been proposed, tried, and abandoned. Reaping machines had
been experimented with and abandoned; sowing machines were in use, but
not many of them; clod crushers and horse rakes were also in use; but
as a fact plowing was done by horse power with a single furrow at a
time, mowing and reaping were done by the scythe or the sickle,
sheaves were bound by hand, hay was tedded by hand-rakes, while all
materials and produce were moved about in carts and in wagons drawn by
horses. At the present time we have multiple plows, making five or six
furrows at a time, these and cultivators also, driven by steam,
commonly from two engines on the head lands, the plow being in
between, and worked by a rope from each engine, or if by one engine, a
capstan on the other head land, with a return rope working the plow
backward and forward; or by what is known as the roundabout system,
where the engine is fixed and the rope carried round about the field;