EDITORIAL. 103 



and the annual expenditures for new equipment and new machines 

 at over one hundred million. This was 10 years ago and since then 

 not only the number of implements and machines but more particu- 

 larly the number of motors has been greatly increased. 



The simple inexpensive implements used by our fathers have been 

 for the most part replaced by more complicated and more expensive 

 machines. Out of the hand flail of the fifties has been evolved the 

 steam thresher of to-day. The modern harvester does the Avork of 

 a large number of men, women, and children equipped only with 

 the sickle, and motors, trolley cars, and railroads have relegated the 

 saddlebags to the museum. These great changes during the lifetime 

 of men still living, and more particularly the substitution during 

 the past decade of motors for horses and mules, have created a wide- 

 spread demand for young men possessing a knowledge of agricul- 

 tural machines and the principles which underlie their construction 

 and use. Studies of this subject are now as essential to the ambitious 

 farm boy as anatomy is to the embryo doctor. The simple arts of 

 mending a flail, whetting a scythe, or harnessing a team have grown 

 into a complicated business demanding not only experience and skill 

 but special training as well. 



Nearly 50 years ago the Nation provided for instruction of a kind 

 suitable to the boys and girls on the farm, but the millions of poorly 

 designed farm homes which still mar the landscape are mute evi- 

 dences that the instruction given did not include rural architecture. 

 The improvement in farm buildings so urgently needed does not call 

 for money so much as a knowledge of how to do things. Out of the 

 same materials, and with very little extra labor, may be built 

 a pleasant, convenient, healthy, and durable country residence, or 

 the reverse. The main difference is one of plan and execution. 



Some colleges now give instruction in rural architecture, others in 

 farm architecture, and still others in cement and concrete. But these 

 courses too often deal with urban rather than rural conditions. 

 Undergraduates who are taught to design and supervise the erection 

 of the palatial homes of the rich find the city and its suburbs the 

 most convenient place to practice their profession. The contrast 

 between rural and urban residences is still more strongly emphasized 

 in relation to the water supplies and sanitation of each. Skilled 

 engineers are employed to provide an ample supply of water for 

 cities, and equally skilled biologists determine its purity, while 

 but little attention is given to farm water supplies and sanitation. 

 Most of the laborious work which falls to the lot of farmers' wives 

 and daughters is due to the lack of proper facilities for providing a 

 plentiful supply of fresh water and for removing the waste. 



Farmers procure water for their needs from the same sources which 

 supply water to the residents of cities. These are springs, wells, cis- 



