1«0 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



know less of the hows and whcns and wheres and whats of agriculture than 

 those Avhose hiterest is centered in such work. But you know the adage, "The 

 looker-on sees most of the game." So you will bear with me if I claim to be an 

 interested looker-on, whose interest began upon his father's farm in boyhood, 

 and was fostered during college days by frequent returns to the farm for long 

 vacations, while eleven years of service with farmer's sons and for farmers in 

 our Agricultural College have confirmed it. There, every day brings its unan- 

 swered, perhaps unanswerable, questions, even into the private study. 



Now the study of political economy opens a wide field for comparison of dif- 

 ferent facilities for progress in various callings, and I propose to offer to-day 

 some observations upon Division of Labor, by way of comparing agriculture with 

 other arts as regards this prime means of civilization. 



Division of labor is simply a cooperation of several individual laborers in the 

 perfection of any product, so that one finishes what another begins. It has 

 been a power in the world's progress since "Adam delved and Eve spun ;" but 

 its increased aiDplication has brought the order of modern civilization out of the 

 confusion of barbarism, and its further application, under proper stimulants and 

 limitations, is to solve many difficulties for this very generation and time. Its 

 special advantages have been most of them pointed out by economists. All are 

 familiar with Adam Smith's famous illustration of the difference in ability of 

 eighteen men Avorking separately, and the same men working conjointly, at pin- 

 making, lie judged that each alone, perfecting the pins he worked on, could 

 make but ^0 jiins a day, or all could make but 360 : but each taking the 

 simplest operation of cutting wire, straightening, pointing, polishing, sticking, 

 etc., together they could make 90,000 a day, — more than 200 times as many. 



This wonderful advantage is found in various directions. It economizes labor 

 by saving time in the work itself, by avoiding change of work and tools ; by 

 shortening the necessary time of apprenticeship from the old seven years to two ; 

 by giving greater chance of skill in minute details, and of manual dexterity to 

 express that skill ; by adapting the different parts of the work to peculiar 

 capacity, so that no power of mind or body is misapplied; and finally, by 

 bringing just that attention to details that perfects the machinery employed. 

 Invention in the broad sense is not fostered by division, because necessity, "the 

 mother of invention," is little felt under a system that reduces each task to the 

 easiest; and so the great machines like the steam engine, locomotive, power 

 loom, spinning jenny, and cotton gin are the work of educated observers rather 

 than of Avorkmen ; but minute perfections groAV up under the minute attention 

 of diA'ided labor. 



Capital is economized in as many Avays. The shop-room required is far less, 

 the tools and machines are fewer and better, the motive poAver is utilized com- 

 pletely Avith fcAver intervals of action, the Avaste of material is less from the 

 more perfect Avork, returns from sales are quicker from increased rapidity in the 

 completion of Avork, and OA'ersight, the most expensive kind of labor, is more 

 effectiA'C and extended. 



A AA'ell divided business is more stable than others. A union of interest binds 

 the laborers together ; steadiness of haljit is fostered by the necessary filling of 

 the niche assigned one ; less real delay occurs in ordinary changes, because a 

 place is easier filled : greater uniformity of production insures a steady sale ; 

 and wider market favors a less fluctuating demand for Avhat is produced. 



All these advantages arc gained first in larger profits by the one Avho first 

 applies this saving in any calling, and afterwards by all the Avorld, in largely 

 increased comfort Avith less labor. 



