94 MISCELLANEOUS FARM SUBJECTS 



Experiment Station, who has recently given one of these machines 

 a practical trial, reports very satisfactory results. He says the fodder 

 is either cut by knives or torn into small bits by the shredder heads. 

 We value the machine particularly for the improved condition in 

 which it leaves the fodder. Any machine that will thoroughly shred 

 the fodder is preferable to one that simply cuts it. Fodder that is 

 shredded immediately on being drawn from the field is often so 

 moist as to mold when thrown in large piles, and proves worthless 

 for feeding. The New Jersey Experiment Station has reported seri- 

 ous trouble from this course. On the other hand, if the fodder is 

 stored for a few months previous to shredding, the danger is largely, 

 if not entirely, avoided. This involves considerable extra expense, 

 however, which sometimes renders it of doubtful economy. The 

 fact remains that stover can not be shredded in any large quantity 

 when moist without great danger of its rapidly becoming unfit for 

 feeding. Farmers having power cutters of their own can shred at 

 one time sufficient for a week's use without danger of its spoiling. 



Machines for Wheat Cultivation. The use of steam as a substi- 

 tute for horse power in plowing, in harvesting, and in thrashing 

 wheat has not materially contributed to economy, except from a sav- 

 ing due to the elimination of animal power, so the more common 

 power supplied by horses is here selected for the comparison. The 

 years in contrast are 1830 and 1896. 



It is one of the marvels of the age that the amount of human 

 labor now required to produce a bushel of wheat from beginning to 

 end is on an average only 10 minutes, whereas, in 1830, the time was 

 3 hours and 3 minutes. During the interval between these years 

 the cost of the human labor required to produce this bushel of wheat 

 declined from 17% cents to 3 1-3 cents. 



In the contrast thus presented the heavy, clumsy plow of the 

 day was used in 1830 ; the seed was sown by hand, and was harrowed 

 into the ground by the drawing of bushes over it ; the grain was cut 

 with sickles, hauled to a barn, and at some time before the following 

 spring was threshed with flails ; the winnowing was done with a sheet 

 attached to rods, on which the grain was placed with a shovel and 

 then tossed up and down by two men until the wind had blown out 

 the chaff. 



In the latter year, on the contrary, the ground was plowed and 

 pulverized in the same operation by a disk plow ; the seed was sown 

 with a mechanical seeder drawn by horses; the reaping, thrashing, 

 and sacking of the wheat was done with the combined reaper and 

 thrasher drawn by horses, and then the wheat was ready to haul to 

 the granary. 



The changes that agricultural production, especially the prepar- 

 ation of agricultural products for the market, have undergone within 

 the last half century, and still more within the last quarter century, 

 are remarkable and important. There is a great difference in results 

 between the time when, as ascertained by the United States Depart- 

 ment of Labor, 20 minutes of human labor were required to husk a 

 bushel of corn by hand, with the use of a husking peg, and 102 



