198 PRINCIPLES OF RURAL ECONOMICS 



the drawing of loads from the field to the barn are all done by 

 a pair of cows ; sometimes, where the farms are a little larger, 

 by the bull, or by the bull and one horse ; while on the smaller 

 farms it is frequently done by one cow. All the other work of 

 such farms the planting, cultivating, harvesting, threshing, 

 etc. is necessarily done by hand. 



Again, there is little doubt that these primitive hand proc- 

 esses are frequently more economical for the individual farmer, 

 under the circumstances which surround him, than more efficient 

 machine methods would be. Let us consider, for example, the 

 question whether he shall thresh his wheat with a flail or hire 

 a steam thresher to do it for him. In the first place, he has a 

 very small farm, and his whole wheat crop does not exceed five 

 acres. In the second place, his whole living must be made from 

 the produce of that farm. In the third place, he has no other 

 use for his time. There is no chance for him to work elsewhere 

 for wages when work is slack on his own farm. If he could 

 work elsewhere for wages, it would undoubtedly be more eco- 

 nomical for him to hire his threshing done by machinery ; but, 

 having no such opportunity, his time is on his hands, and if he 

 does not utilize it in flailing out his wheat, his own labor will 

 simply go to waste. Under these circumstances his threshing 

 may be said to cost him nothing when he does it himself dur- 

 ing the long winter, whereas if he hired it done, the cost would 

 deduct an appreciable sum from his cash income from the farm. 



However economical it may be for him under the circtim- 

 stances to thresh his own wheat, there is no doubt that where 

 such circumstances exist they are the occasion of a great deal of 

 waste labor. The spectacle of dozens and scores of these small 

 farmers laboriously flailing out their wheat crops is sufficient to 

 prove that. If they could once get the mastery of their circum- 

 stances, and create conditions which would enable them to uti- 

 lize their whole time in productive work instead of having it 



