No. 4.] FARM ECONOMICS. 365 



it imposes upon the manufacturer that watchfulness of 

 events, that study of tastes and that constant contact, 

 mental and physical, with moving currents, which alone can 

 insure against loss. 



The application is universal. The ruts of habit do not 

 lead along the highway of progress. Large men, with 

 vision sharpened by friction with the bustling activities of 

 this new century, are as necessary on the farm as elsewhere. 

 So much more is involved than simply to plow, plant, 

 sow and harvest, that the subject must be debated on a 

 broader plane. It is easier to grow a crop or make a prod- 

 uct than it is to realize the most from it in the market ; 

 yet every principle of economy demands that not only shall 

 all waste in growing or manufacturing be prevented, but 

 that there be no loss in disposing of what is produced. 



He who faces agricultural problems in these days, when 

 competition is growing sharper, and ever-widening areas are 

 filling our markets with the products of the land, must 

 realize the complexity of the situation. The necessity for 

 maintaining the agriculture of New England was never 

 greater than at the present hour, and, rightly considered, 

 the outlook improves in spite of the difficulties to be men- 

 tioned. At the same time the producer cannot hope for 

 higher prices to rule, and therefore must study the field to 

 ascertain, if possible, whether or not there is opportunity to 

 reduce cost of production, improve quality, hasten maturity 

 or increase quantity per head or per acre. 



The farm producer is not exempt from the general law of 

 business, which imposes these same obligations on every 

 one who would succeed. If, then, it be true that the prin- 

 ciples of business govern here, as elsewhere, the question 

 may well be considered from a purely business stand-point. 



How reduce cost of production ? For the past quarter of 

 a century this has been the query facing the manufacturer 

 in every department of labor. That it might be compassed, 

 the inventive genius of the age has been searching, Avith 

 fine mathematical adjustments, that construction of machin- 

 ery which might reduce friction, do away with hand labor 

 and increase product. The results attest the skill of the 



