CHAPTER II 



FARMS OF THE FUTURE 



It is said that the plough is, at once, the oldest 

 tool known to man, and the only one that has 

 never been improved, and the statement, sub- 

 stantially true, was a measure, until a few genera- 

 tions ago, of farming at large. Our grandfathers 

 accomplished their annual task with much the 

 same appliances as were in use two thousand 

 years ago, for though metal was supplanting wood 

 the forms were alike, and the routine substantially 

 the same. 



Misfortune, however, has sharpened our wits 

 and driven us to the engineer for help. He with 

 his servant, steam, has so revolutionized us that 

 the last three generations of farmers have seen 

 more changes than the preceding thirty. This 

 movement will not cease — competition grows 

 ever keener, and we shall never more lack that 

 spur that aroused us so sharply from sloth. Labour 

 will become increasingly scarcer, for although 

 there is a current from the city slums countryward, 

 a tendency which will increase, it will never be 



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