I like to see a farmer well provided with tools, that he need not be subject to the very troublesome inconvenience of borrowing. Some, however, prefer to carry on their work by means of their neighbor’s implements, and, from frequent use of the same, they seem to think, that they derive a positive right to them. You may bring home a new axe, for instance, all ground and sharp for business, and, in half an hour, if you wish for it, you are pretty sure to find it at the woodpile of your borrowing neighbor. Is not this most provoking?
A farmer, as well as a mechanic, should have tools of his own. How would it answer for a carpenter to depend upon a brother artificer for his broad-axe, his mallet, his hammer, and hand-saw? For myself, I have always endeavored to keep on hand, and ready for use, every sort of farming utensils, that I think I may need, in my, rather small way, perhaps, of husbandry; and it may be, that what has been remarked about it is true, viz: that, for this very reason, my neighbors are but too negligent in this matter, calculating that whenever they want a tool, they know where to find one.
I have been called a ‘good-natured man, and willing to oblige,’ but, from this time henceforth, I am determined to set up my Ebenezer in the business, and show them, that I am not without grit and resolution. I will not be pestered, as I have been for a series of years, with such continual annoyance. I would be liberally disposed towards my neighbors; I would be in season and out of season in my good offices; but with respect to farming tools, there is no more lack of them for the agriculturist, than there is of lace, ribands, and trinkets for a ball room.
Every sort and kind of tool is offered for sale at the Agricultural stores, and a man is not obliged now, as once, to botch up an old, worn-out tool, because there are no more to be purchased. The best accommodation on this behalf may now be found on the right, and on the left, so that borrowing is out of the question. I say to the farmer who expects to carry on his business by depending on his neighbors for tools,—’avaunt! nor presume to meddle with my scythe, my rake, my flail, my brake, my axe, my hoe, my plough, my crow;’ ay, and again I say, hands off from my beetle and wedges.
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