578 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



stock must be driven quite a distance twice a day in winter to a field, and the ice broken in 

 order to water them. This involves much trouble and time, with a liability to injury to some 

 of the animals from slipping on the ice, or hooking each other, aside from the exposure 

 occasioned on severely cold or stormy days. The soiling crops are grown at a distance from 

 the barn, involving the necessity of the use of a team every time anythi-ng is cut for feeding, 

 while all the arrangements on the farm seem calculated to impede rather than assist the 

 progress of the farm-work. Much of the labor expended in such cases would have been 

 unnecessary under a better system of arrangement, and is a constant expenditure of labor 

 and time that brings no real compensation in return. 



Better Knowledge of Farming, and Less Drudgery. Money, time, and 

 Labor are often wasted by farmers, from a lack of knowledge of the nature and requirements 

 of the soil and plants cultivated. 



A vast amount of labor is frequently expended in attempts to produce crops from soils 

 which are not adapted to those particular kinds of plant-growths, or which lack some of the 

 essential elements of plant-food. Failing to inform themselves with respect to the improved 

 agricultural methods of the present time, many farmers do not profit by that which has been 

 gained by years of experience and observation; hence, they are a generation or more behind 

 the age in which they are living. Knowledge is power in every branch and department of 

 business, and the farmer who possesses the best knowledge of his business is the best capaci 

 tated to make that business a success. 



The hands should serve the head, and the farmer that has the best agricultural knowl 

 edge, combined with the mental ability to successfully plan and execute the most thorough 

 system, will not be obliged to make his life a mere drudgery of toil from morning till night, 

 day after day, and year after year. The devising of the best plans and methods should be 

 the first consideration, and their execution secondary. He who drudges on, without any 

 system or method, will never be anything but a mere drudge, or attain to anything but a 

 meager success. Farmers, as a class, should spend more time in informing themselves in 

 their business, by reading the best agricultural books and papers, attending farmers clubs, 

 etc., and also more time in devising the best methods for all kinds of farm-work, based upon 

 the knowledge thus obtained. By such means, more head-work, and fewer hours of labor 

 with the hands, will secure far better results than are now commonly obtained. 



Farmers should also acquaint themselves with the best and uniformly cheapest rates of 

 transporting their crops to market. This consideration will be called in question in deciding 

 what crops to raise. Farmers, as a class, also need a better understanding of business prin 

 ciples to enable them to buy and sell to the best advantage, the time, manner, and rates for 

 the different products of the farm all having due consideration. They need, in this connec 

 tion, to deal more directly with the consumer and manufacturer in disposing of their 

 products, and in purchasing implements, clothing, etc., and less with the &quot;middle-men,&quot; whose 

 commissions largely modify the receipts and expenditures of the farmer in such cases. With 

 better information on agricultural subjects, there will be better tillage, the use of better seed 

 for crops, better farm-stock, better planning and systematizing, less hard labor, and better 

 profits. Constant and severe toil incapacitates the mind for the best thought of which it is 

 capable ; there will be neither the energy nor time for it. 



A certain amount of rest from hard labor is, therefore, a paying investment, as the 

 hands will then be made to serve the brain to the best advantage, and there will be less 

 drudgery and more knowledge and skill in conducting the business, while larger profits 

 other conditions being equal will be the result. 



Improved Farm Implements Essential. The improvement made in farm 

 implements during the last quarter of a century is truly astonishing, as well as the influence 



