OBJECTIONS. 117 



quired, us sheariug aud milkiug demand much 

 labour, iu all probability still more difficult to be 

 obtained in future. In olden times the farmers' 

 sons used to co-operate together for shearing 

 purposes, aud by having the shear days of the 

 different farms of the locality on separate days 

 they helped one another in turn, and combined 

 festivity and pastime with the arduous work. 

 The custom has long since, however, fallen into 

 abeyance. Travelling gangs have for some years 

 past been accustomed to visit farms, and perform 

 the shearings at a fixed price per score or hun- 

 dred sheep. But even this resource is likely 

 enough to fail ultimately ovring to the scarcity 

 of labour difficulty, and if it does seriously, 

 clipping power-driven machines will become in- 

 dispensable. 



But both these and the cow-milking machines 

 are far too costly for middle-class farmers to 

 buy, nor could any but large arable farmers find 

 it worth while, even if they had the money avail- 

 able, to possess themselves of self-binding reapers 

 merely to work for a few days, and then to be 

 laid by for the remainder of the year. 



Still, it is clear that not only have there been 

 immense improvements in agricultural appli- 

 ances, but that farmers have shown no particular 

 laxity in adopting such of them as they could 

 adopt. Those, therefore, who are so much in the 

 habit of regarding the farmer as non-progressive 

 iu this, as in other matters, would do well to be 

 sure of their facts. 



