W. Johnson, of Edinburgh, who was making a tour of North America,
was present. The address of the president, Henry Ruttan of Cobourg, is a
most valuable reference article descriptive of the agricultural progress
of the province from the first settlements in 1783 to the time of the
exhibition. Ruttan was a loyalist's son, and, from his own personal
knowledge, he described the old plough that was given by the government
to each of the first settlers.

It consisted of a small iron socket, whose point entered by
means of a dove-tailed aperture into the heel of the
coulter, which formed the principal part of the plough, and
was in shape similar to the letter L, the shank of which
went through the wooden beam, and the foot formed the point
which was sharpened for operation. One handle and a plank
split from the side of a winding block of timber, which did
duty for the mould-board, completed the implement. Besides
provisions for a year, I think each family had issued to
them a plough-share and coulter, a set of dragg-teeth, a
log chain, an axe, a saw, a hammer, a bill hook and a
grubbing hoe, a pair of hand-irons and a cross-cut saw
amongst several families, and a few other articles.

He then refers to the large number of implements then being pressed upon
the farmers, until 'they have almost become a nuisance to the farmer who
desires to purchase a really useful article.' All of which indicates
that a distinctive feature of the period beginning with 1846 was the
introduction and rapid extension of improved farm machinery.

A few words as to the reaping machine, which contributed more than any
other modern implement to the development of agriculture in the past
century, may not be out of place. Various attempts had been made at
producing a machine to supersede the sickle, the scythe, and the cradle
before the Rev. Patrick Bell, in 1826, presented his machine to the
Highland Agricultural Society of Scotland for its examination. Bell's
machine was fairly successful, and one was then in operation on the farm
of his brother, Inch-Michael, in the Carse of Gowrie. One set of knives
was fixed, another set worked above and across these like the blades of
a pair of scissors. The grain fell on an endless cloth which carried and
deposited the heads at the side of the machine. A horse pushed it
forward and kept all parts in motion. It was simple, and, we are t