FIFTY MILLION STRONG 



twelve years ago and was barely able to earn a dollar a day 

 while men in the same field earned twice as much. They 

 worked no harder than he did and not so long. He began 

 watching to see where he lost time. He was slow in moving 

 from stalk to stalk and saw at once that it required no more 

 energy to move quickly that it did to move slowly. He had 

 taken one long step on the road to improvement. Then he 

 saw that he was making five distinct motions in getting an 

 ear from the husk when only two were necessary, so he learned 

 to make two and get the ear clean. The third fall he husked 

 fifty bushels in four hours more easily than he had in ten 

 hours at the beginning. 



" In my boyhood there was a chum with whom I spent 

 many pleasant days. He was the hardest worker and the 

 most ingenious boy in the neighborhood. When he went out 

 to feed the horses in the morning he watered and fed the 

 hogs, because the yards were on the way to the barn. When 

 he had fed the horses he went to the pasture and drove up 

 the cows, because the barn was on the way to the pasture. 

 That boy would not take twenty steps where five would do. 

 He could do more in a day than any man in the neighborhood, 

 and he did it with less exertion because he knew how to work 

 and kept his mind on what he was doing. 



" Here is a suggestion that if followed for a week will be 

 fairly well followed for life. While beginning the morning- 

 chores map out the day's work, estimate the time it will take 

 to do it. If anything else can be done to advantage, gain 

 time enough to do it. Make life a living contract and live 

 up to it. Deal with the agent promptly and fire the loafer. 

 Time is worth money to the live farmer and it isn't worth 

 fifteen cents a million years to the loafer. Tighten up the 

 screws and get rid of the lost motion." 



74 



