338 HISTORY OF THE GRANGE MOVEMENT; OR, 



farmer is compelled to pay an exorbitant price for. 

 If he buys a sewing machine for his wife, he pays 

 fully twenty-five or thirty per cent, more than the 

 article is actually worth, the difference going to swell 

 the enormous profits of' the sewing machine com- 

 panies. And so the list could be extended indefinitely. 

 All kinds of machinery sell too high, and the farmer 

 is required to pay a most extravagant profit to the 

 dealer who supplies him. People seem to think that 

 he is a legitimate object of plunder, and he is charged 

 prices that no one would ever dream of asking a 

 sharp city merchant. 



The country districts are flooded with the agents of 

 the agricultural machine manufacturers, who are using 

 all their arts to dispose of the wares of their principals. 

 Reapers, corn-planters, seed drills, cultivators, mowing 

 machines, sulky corn-plows, and the like, are offered in 

 profusion. All are costly, and many of them are worth- 

 less, for it is a lamentable fact that about one-half of the 

 so-called labor-saving machines are so wretchedly con- 

 structed that they either break down at an early stage, 

 or are incapable of performing the work for which they 

 are designed. None of them are absolutely necessary, 

 for the work of the farm can be done without them, 

 and should be, unless the farmer is fortunate enough to 

 have the purchase money in hand, and is able to spare 

 it for that purpose. But too often he buys against his 

 own judgment, yielding to the blandishments and per- 

 suasions of the agent, and when he awakes to a sense 

 of his error, it is too late to withdraw. He has assumed 

 a burdensome obligation, and he must meet it at any 

 cost. One hears many sad stories of the struggles of 

 farmers to meet the debts thus incurred. " Since I 



