No. 4.] FARM ECONOMICS. 375 



direction, its purchase is economy. Many a man has gained 

 by setting one side a five-foot mower and buying a longer 

 cut. The value of all machines must be gauged by results. 

 Hand labor is more and more to be superseded by machinery, 

 but- this necessitates larger operations, that the relative 

 profit nurv not be reduced. It reduces labor in one direc- 

 tion, that more ma} r be done in another. These labor-saving 

 machines are not intended to relieve the brain, but the hand. 

 The man saves physical force that he may expend mental, 

 and out of this expenditure obtain what formerly was im- 

 possible. 



A large item of loss on many farms is the time necessary 

 to move from field to field in order to complete any given 

 work, and the same lesson applies with equal force to the 

 majority of manufacturers. We turn too many short fur- 

 rows, cultivate too man} 7 fractions of an acre, travel over too 

 much territory to grow our crops. Econonry suggests the 

 massing of land under the plow, and the systematic going- 

 over the whole farm by a short-term rotation. Standing 

 one day recently looking over the well-tilled fields of a 

 middle-aged farmer, there could be counted ten lots of land 

 under the plow, scattered all over the farm, four or five of 

 which covered considerably less than an acre each. If these 

 could have been in one lot, the saving of labor in cultivation 

 and travel would be no mean item. Asking a Kansas corn 

 grower how he made money, his reply was, " By the length 

 of the corn rows." He reduced loss of time and labor to 

 the minimum. 



Discussing this question from a purely business stand- 

 point, with reference to the economies possible, these are a 

 few which are suggested. They all or nearly all apply with 

 equal force to other lines of labor, and only illustrate the 

 fact that occupation does not settle the question, and that 

 waste is universal. At the same time, here are some of the 

 steps which may be taken to still further reduce the cost of 

 production, and leave in the pocket of the producer the evi- 

 dence of a more satisfactory year's business. 



Asking of nature that she return in ever-increasing ratio 

 and in constantly improving quality, there come correspond- 



