576 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 
codrdinate this new element of cheap labor in such a way as not to 
supersede the employment of higher-priced native labor. It is submit- 
ted that cheap labor will operate in the same general direction as labor- 
saving machinery ; that, by cheapening production, it will open up more 
numerous sources of employment, of higher grade and of better wages. 
American labor, if it continues to hold its relative weight in its combi- 
nation with capital, must develop increasing efficiency in producing 
results. If so, it must be emancipated from the drudgery of those ele- 
mentary operations from which machinery has already partially relieved 
it. Labor must be more intellectual, and the native laborer must aspire 
to a larger share of the Jabor of direction. The employment of China- 
men will tend to secure these essential points. While relieving the 
American laborer from the rudimentary task-work of agriculture, Chinese 
cheap labor will impart an impulse to production, as machinery has 
done, opening new sources of employment. In these his conservative 
habits and his mechanical intelligence will forbid his rivalry with 
American labor. He is an excellent imitator, and will perform with the 
exactness of machinery the operations intrusted to him, but he has no 
vivacity of invention to lead him beyond those prescribed limits. These 
conclusions, though in a measure hypothetical, are supported by the 
agricultural and commercial press of the country in general, and seem 
to be gaining ground in public opinion. Of course, their real value can 
be finally tested only by experiment. 
Leaving out of view such theoretical considerations, and estimating 
the experiment of Chinese labor in this country from the results it has 
already achieved, its success seems to be assured. The patient docility 
and remarkable facility of imitation of these immigrants enable them 
quickly to learn any routine operation. They have no wasteful habits, 
and hence the same amount of raw material goes farther in their hands 
than in those of the native or naturalized laborer. Their mechanical 
exactitude and singular carefulness in performing their tasks will go 
far to relieve the labor of superintendence. Their constant industry, 
plying their hireling tasks with as great diligence as though working 
entirely for themselves, makes their labor especially profitable. Their 
habit of boarding themselves relieves the family of the farmer from that 
invasion of domestic help which often imposes a serious burden, both 
of labor and of subsistence. 
In the cotton industry of the South, and in the silk and tea culture of 
the Pacific coast, they find themselves especially at home. In these 
pursuits, requiring such an endless variety of manipulation, the careful 
and mechanical Mongolian will find special adaptation, supplying a 
kind of labor which can be obtained from no other source. He will in 
time adapt himself to other branches of agriculture, with results not 
less decisive. The experiment has been inaugurated, and from 
present appearances seems destined to receive a fair and fuli trial. 
MODES AND RESULTS OF IRRIGATION. 
‘The work of irrigation, a necessity of our agriculture in a large and 
promising portion of its area, is attaining systematic development, and 
assuming larger proportions with the settlement (and especially col- 
onization) of the plains and mountain valleys of our Territories. The 
Union Colony at Greeley, Colorado, furnishes an illustration of the 
