FAEMERS' INSTITUTES. 191 



Xow in agriculture there has been little application of division of labor. The 

 farmer is a man of all works, not to say "a Jack at all trades." While in 

 most of the arts tlie world is reaping every advantage from a full development 

 of resources of all 'kinds, Ave are but beginning the development of plans by 

 which the best results in agriculture can be reached. Food and what are called 

 the raw products of labor do not diminish in value as manufactured articles do. 

 While subject to extremes of fluctuation in particulars, in the bulk they are 

 the most stable of commodities. A dozen staple products of the farm, taken 

 together, form the surest standard of comparison for fluctuating values. Even 

 gold is proved to depreciate gradually by such a standard. Since California and 

 Australia opened their treasures, gold has become from thirty to forty per cent 

 cheaper than before ; but raw food takes a larger proportion of our earnings 

 than thirty or forty years ago. 



The cause of this high price is not to be found in monopoly, for there is no 

 occupation M'here competition is stronger than in farming. It is not explained 

 by a simple statement of the fact, as })roved Ijy universal experience. A partial 

 explanation may be found in the exliaustion of fertility of virgin soils, putting 

 farther from xis the treasure we seek, just as we have to dig deeper for the ores 

 and precious metals, or travel further for the stores of lumber in unbroken for- 

 ests. Yet this is but a partial explanation. It often happens that we can 

 afford more poAver at less cost of exertion. A pastime of my boyhood Avas the 

 Avatching of teams, loaded Avith bog ore, daily passing to a furnace some six 

 miles aAvay. At a recent visit to the old home, the question arose, Avhy had all 

 this traffic ceased? The bog was still there, and apparently as productiA'e as 

 GA^er, Avhile the furnace, though still in full blast, made no market for the 

 ore. The question Avas put to the OAvner of the furnace, avIio answered, "We 

 can get Lake Superior ore delivered at our dock for less money than it Avonld 

 cost to haul the bog ore." Here Avas a case Avhere improA'ed machinery and 

 careful division of labor had abolished distance, and made six hundred miles 

 less than six. 



Doubtless a fuller explanation of the dearness of farm products is found in 

 the fact before referred to, tliat division of labor has been less applied here than 

 anyAvhere else, and each laborer is expected to be a good man in a dozen or 

 twenty different operations, any one of which is as intricate as many of the 

 trades. All this is not to disjjarage the farmer or farming by any means. 

 There are a host of reasons Avhy division of labor is naturally limited in this 

 department of industry, so that it forms the notable example of natural limit- 

 ations. These obstacles grow out of the peculiar agents and forces with Avhich 

 farming deals, as Avell as some conA'cntional notions, the groAvth of centuries, 

 under favorable conditions. 



Of the first, we haA'C peculiarities of climatic influences. The seasons bring 

 their peculiar duties. PloAving and soAving and tilling and harvesting succeed 

 eacli other according to tlic varying season from Spring to Autumn, and the 

 Avork must change form Avlth the succession. More than this, the Avork must 

 accommodate itself to Avet and dry, to Avind and calm, to sunshine and storm. 

 Many a day is lost entirely by the mass of farmers from an unexpected shower, 

 and CA'ery sudden change brings it.-^ cost in the friction necessary in leaving one 

 kind of Avork to engage in another. Nor is this all : the uncertainty of success- 

 ive years makes a variety of Acntures necessary. Ko farmer dares to risk his 

 summer's labor upon any single crop, but must so divide his interests as to 

 insure some return, even if the A'ear be one of drought or one of delu<ye. This 



