56 LAND AND LABOR. 



ing the results of the present harvest before they also 

 enter into the business. The amounts of new land 

 broken, in all directions, for future seeding, are very 

 great. 



The two great facts developed by these observations 

 are, that those who have gone into wheat growing 

 upon a large scale, making use of the most improved 

 machinery and cheap labor, are making colossal for- 

 tunes at seventy cents per bushel for wheat, limited 

 only by the number of acres cultivated and the skill 

 with which the work is done ; and that it may also 

 be grown, at large profits, for less than twenty-five 

 cents per bushel. 



But that, on the other hand, the small farmers, de- 

 pending mainly on their own labor, with limited capi- 

 tal and less machinery, are not making a comfortable 

 subsistence, but are running behind hand and must 

 go under ; and that a further reduction in the market 

 price for food products must hasten their end. 



Before agricultural machinery had come into gen- 

 eral use, and before the age of railroads, the farms of 

 our fathers would average, in size, but little more 

 than one hundred acres, with an amount of plowland 

 equalling about fifty acres each. Very rarely did they 

 exceed double that amount. On every such farm was 

 there a family home, with all the ties, endearments, 

 advantages, and improvements that the word " home" 

 conveys to our minds. They furnished not alone 

 homes, but employment, abundance, and comfort for 

 irnily of at least a dozen persons. Go through 

 New England, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 

 and Ohio, and see the great numbers of such places, 



