Shift Due to Machinery 13 



machines ; the new kinds of vehicles ; all the 

 multitude of special milk-manipulating, butter- 

 working and cheese-making devices; the adap- 

 tation of steam, gasolene and even electric 

 power; and the marvelous range and beauty 

 of tilling implements and machines. Within 

 fifty years, the cost of producing a bushel of 

 corn has been reduced by two-thirds ; a ton of 

 hay by nearly as much ; and of other products 

 in similar proportion. 



The change is probably even more remark- 

 able in the farmer's attitude toward the rea- 

 sons that underlie his work, although this 

 shift does not appeal so much to the popular 

 imagination. His attitude toward soil fertil- 

 ity has undergone a complete change ; so has 

 his attitude toward the feeding of animals 

 and the treatment of their ailments ; so has it 

 toward diseases of plants and toward the 

 insects. He speaks a new language. Even 

 when the old farm seems to show no visible 

 change in external matters, the farmer himself 

 cannot avoid attacking his problems in a new 

 way. Butter-fat is a reality. There are new 



