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labor, it is not necessary to roll back the tide of progress and reduce 

 labor to the mere mechanical thing which it was in the past and which 

 it still is in oriental countries. Such labor could^ not meet the want of 

 the present age if it could be secured. Unskilled labor is annually be- 

 coming a greater drug in the labor-market. The increased demand for 

 intelligent and effective tcork will call forth its own supply. A labor- 

 ing population that cannot meet this demand will, of course, be dis- 

 placed by more energetic compet'itors. The chronic complaints of in- 

 efficient and unreliable labor from almost every (Quarter indicate the 

 presence of temporary abnormal conditions which cannot long resist 

 the spirit of progress. The evil will work its own cure. 



The change in the conditions of production, resulting from the en- 

 hanced cost of labor, is a practical question which American farmers 

 are trving to solve by practical methods. Three sources of relief are con- 

 templated in our March returns. First, it is well known that, in the past, 

 labor, like other elements of production, has been wastefully used. To 

 stop this waste and to redeem its resulting loss is now a prominent con- 

 cern among our farmers. Secondly, it is now seen that human labor is too 

 costly and valuable to be wasted upon the heavier jnechanical tasks of 

 agriculture. The laborer is no longer the mudsill of societj". The forces 

 of nature, mechanical, chemical, and vital, have been more generally 

 called into requisition, indefinitely increasing the amount of motive- 

 power available in production. Several years ago the London Times 

 estimated the steam-power, propelling, manufacturing, and mining-ma- 

 chinery in England at double the muscular force of the entire human 

 race. In later years the more elaborate forms of mechanism have been 

 applied in an increasing degree to agriculture. The laborer, relieved 

 from the drudgery of elementary toil, is gradually exalted to the labor 

 of direction. The scope of progress in this direction seems to be jn^ac- 

 tically unlimited. This exaltation of labor, combining a small propor- 

 tion of costly intelligence with a great mass of cheap, dead, mechanical 

 j)ower, will ultimately cheapen ]>roduction, as it alreadj^ has done in 

 manufactures, and remove the difficulties of our present transition stage 

 of agriculture. Thirdly, economic science has detected an enormous 

 waste of productive power in the slovenly farming of the present day. 

 Fertilizing principles are allowed to escape into the atmosphere, or to 

 be w^ashed away by the rains, which, if carefull}- saved, would have re- 

 stored the declining fertility of the soil. Farmers in all parts of the 

 country are awakening to this suicidal course, and now intelligent efforts 

 are being put forth to arrest this fatal drain upon our natural resources. 

 But the same economical principles are applied to all branches of farm- 

 ing enterprise from its highest generalizations to its minutest details. 

 The management of the farm, the direction of the labors of cultivation, 

 is now no longer a mere hap-hazard matter. Here is found scope for 

 the highest practical intelligence and for the finest administrative talents. 

 The system of farming which ignores these elements of power will 

 necessarily fall behind, and those parts of the country cursed with its 

 presence will continue to export their labor and capital to more ener- 

 getic regions until they are left exhausted and helpless. A few such 

 counties are found in every portion of our country. In some regions 

 the rule of this old and asphyxiated conservatism is just beginning to 

 be broken ; but the great majority of our reports indicate progress of 

 some kind, while in many cases the most advanced scientific improve- 

 ments have been successfully inaugurated and have already shown their 

 normal results. The method of co-operation, of intelligent comparing 

 of results and processes, and of diffusing intelligence by the press, and 



