FACTORS OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION 20 1 



about as difficult to change. Dean Davenport mentions that a 

 valuable cart was allowed to rot on a certain South American 

 estate for the reason that the native laborers refused to use it 

 because it did not squeak like their old wooden carts. 1 



But while we can doubtless find more amusing instances of 

 this kind of conservatism by looking beyond our own borders, we 

 need not look so far as that to find illustrations of the same kind. 

 Every farm manager has had his patience tried to the limit by 

 the stupidity or pig-headedness of hired men who thought that 

 certain things had to be done in certain ways, and neither per- 

 suasion nor authority could induce them to do otherwise. Even 

 self-employed farmers are still found who plant their crops only 

 when the moon is right, who employ a water witch to locate a 

 well for them, etc. More particularly are they slow to adopt 

 newer, quicker, and less laborious methods of performing old 

 tasks. You may demonstrate to some farm hands over and over 

 again that by a certain method of husking an ear of corn, or 

 hitching up a team, or doing any of the common but important 

 tasks of the farm, the number of motions can be reduced and 

 the time of the operation cut in half, and yet they will refuse 

 even to try the new method. Their attitude is not unlike that of 

 a certain man who saw a camel for the first time. After gazing 

 at the animal for a long time he turned away with an air of posi- 

 tive conviction and said, " There ain't no such beast." A pro- 

 gressive attitude of mind, a willingness to change, to learn a 

 new method when it is once demonstrated to be better than the 

 old one, is one of the first requisites to an efficient and eco- 

 nomical employment of the labor power of a community. The 

 mere process of changing, or of learning a new method, is so pain- 

 ful to certain temperaments that they will prefer common drudg- 

 ery and poverty to lighter work and a better income if the latter 

 are to be won at the expense of so much initial pain. 



1 See Bailey, Cyclopedia of American Agriculture, Vol. IV, p. 93. 



