WASTES AND WANTS OP THE FARM. 579 



of their use upon agriculture. During that period they have been substituted in a great 

 measure in place of hand-labor on the fann, which has resulted in vastly increasing the agri 

 cultural resources of the country, since by their use labor can be performed much cheaper, 

 faster, and better than by hand. They are a great convenience on small farms, and absolutely 

 indispensable on large ones, where extensive crops could not be cultivated without them. 



Take the reaper, for instance, the introduction of which into the grain-fields has added 

 many millions of dollars to the annual harvests, by rendering it possible to secure the entire 

 product, and also by admitting of a largely-increased area of grain culture. The same might 

 be said of improvements in harrows, cultivators, plows, and all other farm machinery. 



The use of suitable farm implements also enables a farmer of small means to conduct a 

 much larger business than he otherwise could where only hand-labor was employed, thus 

 cheapening the cost of production. 



Since labor can be performed so much more easily and cheaply by the use of improved 

 machinery, it is the practice of economy to employ them whenever practicable. There are, 

 however, many farmers who, with ideas of false economy, still persist in depending mainly 

 upon hand-labor, while the few implements that may be in use upon their farms are of the 

 most inferior kind. 



&quot;Where the amount of crops cultivated will warrant the purchase of the best machines, 

 they will soon pay for themselves many times over, in the amount of labor saved and the 

 increased facilities thus afforded for cultivating larger and better crops. The use of machines 

 also saves time, labor, and health. By their aid the farmer can raise larger crops with less 

 physical labor, and consequently less risk to health. As a general rule, farmers look older, 

 according to their years, than almost any other class of individuals. This is due to the 

 severe toil to which they subject themselves, and the constant over -taxing of their strength. 

 &quot;We do not wish to be understood to convey the idea that we do not consider farming a 

 healthy business. On the contrary, we believe it the most healthful of all occupations when 

 judiciously followed. But every good is liable to perversion, and we believe the majority of 

 farmers either injure their health, or hasten old age, and break down in the latter part of life 

 quicker than they ought, through the excessive hard labor that they impose upon themselves. 

 If machines can be employed to perform the necessary farm-work, and thus prevent a waste 

 of strength and health, how much better to make use of this means than to make life a 

 drudgery, with all the attendant evil effects. 



Instead of feeling that he cannot afford such aids, the farmer who has a correct idea of 

 economy will feel that he cannot do without them. In connection with the use of better farm 

 implements, which, by admitting of better tillage and increased facilities of cultivation and 

 harvesting, will enable the farmer to produce larger crops, might be mentioned the economy 

 of so fertilizing the soil, combined with improved methods of tillage, that much larger crops 

 may be produced from the same area. By this means labor will be saved, and comparatively 

 larger profits be secured. English agriculture, where a dense population requires that the 

 cultivation of the soil be such as to secure the highest results from a limited area, might be 

 mentioned as an example of this method. Where land is abundant even, this principle will 

 hold true to a certain extent, since about the same amount of labor will be required for the 

 cultivation and harvesting of a light or a heavy crop. 



The land must be plowed and harrowed, the grain sowed and reaped, and if, by a little 

 extra care in preparing the soil, a third or one-half larger crop can be produced, it will well 

 repay for the extra labor and expense bestowed. 



A leading aim with the farmer should be to raise the largest amount of farm products 



with the least expense. To half till a field of ten acres, and obtain but three or four hundred 



bushels of corn, when that amount could be raised by cultivating properly four or five acres, 



would be poor economy, since the same result could be reached with half the amount of 



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