138 ESSAYS ON WHEAT 



after pair, for crushing the middlings into flour, the worm 

 conveyers, the bran collector, the offal grader, the stock- 

 ings for removing the mill dust, and much else ; and, when 

 one reflects that the mill works continuously night and 

 day, week in and week out, with so little manual labor 

 spent upon its guidance, and yet with thousands of barrels 

 of flour turned out every day, one cannot help admiring 

 the ingenuity of man and rejoicing at such evidence of 

 his mastery over the forces of nature. Not small indeed 

 is the debt of gratitude which Canada owes to the great 

 inventors of the past who have made her present develop- 

 ment possible. 



XXX. Recent Improvements in the Conditions of 



Farm Life 



The conditions of farm life on the prairie have been 

 steadily improved in the last few years owing to the in- 

 troduction of various conveniences. Farming implements,~\ 

 such as plows, binders, and threshing machines, have un- | 

 dergone progressive evolution, so that the actual work j 

 of tilling the fields, gathering the crops, and threshing 

 the grain, has become much more scientific and efficient 

 than it was. Light metal-frame wind-mills have been 

 erected on many farms as a source of power for pumping 

 water but are now being largely replaced by engines burn- 

 ing liquid fuel. 



The gasolene or kerosene engine has been a particularly 

 welcome addition to the farm and is now much used to 

 save both time and manual labor.'^* Smaller engines are 

 employed for pumping water, and for operating the milk- | 

 ing machine (with which several cows may be milked at / 

 one and the same time), the cream-separator, the churn, 



74 Kerosene, on account of its cheapness and efficiency in producing 

 power, is now becoming a popular substitute for gasolene. 



