8 



feel that it was a reflection on their farming that they did not 

 keep their teams busy, than they would that they did not keep 

 somebody constantly at work pumping water out of the well. 



Of course this attitude is dead wrong, but most men do not 

 see it or, if they do, they do not "let on." If they could be 

 made to realize that the cost of their team labor would be just 

 half as much per day if they would use the teams twice as 

 many hours it would be not merely a change but a revolution. 

 The team ought not to stand idle an hour, if this can possibly 

 be avoided. If it cannot be used at home it ought to be hired 

 out. It cannot, of course, on most farms, be kept at work 

 ten hours a day for six days a week for fifty-two weeks in the 

 year, but that ought to be the ideal. One thing which will 

 help to reaUze this ideal is to do every piece of work possible 

 on the farm with teams instead of men. Few farmers realize 

 how much more costly man labor is than horse labor, , else we 

 would see more corn fields that were check-rowed so as to be 

 cultivated both ways, and fewer that had to be hoed by 

 hand. 



Another great saving in cost might be made if our teams 

 were made to carry a full-sized load. How often one sees a 

 fine team and one or more apparently able-bodied men coming 

 in from the field with a mere handful of hay on the wagon, or 

 going out to the field with a wheelbarrow load of manure. And 

 yet this method practically doubles the cost of the labor item. 

 If possible have the teams go loaded both ways. This is per- 

 haps not very often possible, but it could be done much more 

 frequently than it is if a little thought were put on the matter. 



Lastly, on this matter of teams, do not put but one man on 

 the job, unless it is such work as hauling hay or loading barrels 

 of apples, where two men are absolutely indispensable for the 

 man labor involved. The sight of two husky men and one team 

 running a cultivator or a plow is enough to shake one's faith in 

 the evolution of man, at least those particular men. There is 

 something wrong with the man who cannot hold a plow and 

 drive a team at the same time. He is a cripple, either mentally 

 or phj^sically or both, although he may not know it. The old 

 saying ought to be amended to read, "He that by the plow 

 would thrive, must always hold the plow and drive." 



