CHAP. n. LABOR-SAVING MACHINERY. 15 



market, at one operation. This machine, with two men, 

 will, in one fine day, secure the crop from ten or fifteen 

 acres, with a minimum of labor. In the great wheat- 

 fields of California and Australia, with an almost uni- 

 formly dry climate at harvest time, it is this saving of 

 labor which is the chief consideration; but in our 

 treacherous climate, where a few days' delay may mean 

 the partial or complete ruin of the crop, such machines 

 will be doubly valuable by enabling farmers to utilize to 

 the utmost every fine day after the grain is ripe. I had 

 the pleasure of seeing this wonderful machine at work 

 in California in 1887. It was propelled by sixteen small 

 mules harnessed behind, so as not to be in the way; but 

 steam power is now used. Considering what it effected, 

 it was wonderfully light, compact, and simple ; and when 

 agriculture is treated as a work of national importance, 

 such machines will render us, to a considerable extent, 

 independent of the weather, and will therefore become a 

 necessity. 



The three mechanical inventions here briefly de- 

 scribed were conceived in the first half, and brought to 

 perfection in the second half of the century. They 

 each mark a new departure in human industry, inas- 

 much as they effect, by means of machinery and at one 

 operation, what had previously been performed by hu- 

 man labor directed by a hand or arm rendered skilful 

 by long practice, and sometimes requiring several dis- 

 tinct operations. They had been thus performed dur- 

 ing the whole preceding period of human history, or so 

 long as the particular kind of work had been done; so 

 that, though of less general use and of less importance, 

 they have the same distinguishing features which we 



