I46 AGRICULTURE OE MAINE. 



300 loads of dressing, have ploughed forty acres, and aside from 

 harvesting the crops one man has done substantially the whole 

 of it, and has been riding on a spring seat three-quarters of the 

 time. Modern implements have changed what was once hard, 

 manual labor into a mere pastime. They serve to keep the boys 

 on the farm and make it easy to retain hired help. They not onlv 

 do the work very much faster but in most cases very much better 

 than it can possibly be done by hand, and I think it is not only 

 every man's privilege but his duty to avail himself of their use. 

 It is a duty he owes himself, his boys and his hired help. And 

 the most expensive of them, such as manure spreader, sulky 

 plow, riding cultivator, corn planter, corn harvester, and many 

 others, can be used at different times and by a whole neighbor- 

 hood as well as one person, so there is no excuse for not enjoy- 

 ing their use. We cannot afford to plow along in the beaten 

 paths of our ancestors, if we would succeed in this twentieth 

 century. We must not reject a system of agriculture that 

 promises large profits because there is work in it, but adopt it 

 and make the horses do the work. 



If the farmers of Maine could be awakened to the opportunities 

 that await them and induced to use the best there is in them, the 

 problem of keeping the boys on the farm would soon be solved. 

 There would be no more abandoned farms ; and the stock of the 

 State would soon be doubled. 



