FARM MACHINERY 85 



government, social relations, and education in any degree compara- 

 ble to that now common among the farming classes in this country.^ 



Consider how much lighter farm work now is than it was fifty 

 years ago, before the introduction of machinery. How infinitely 

 easier it must be to ride in the spring seat of a reaping machine, 

 with no harder task at hand than that of keeping the horses out 

 of the grain, than it would be to shuffle wearily along that same 

 way, with bended back and with the perspiration springing from 

 every pore, cutting an eight- or ten-foot cradle swath. And how 

 much preferable to pitch sheaves to a threshing machine, or to 

 work on the straw stack for a day or two, than to labor all through 

 the winter months flailing and winnowing grain.^ It is much more 

 delightful to have a sulky plow, with the option to walk or to ride, 

 as inclination may direct, than to be compelled to trudge all day over 

 the yielding soil, till your limbs grow heavy and you stumble at 

 evening when you strike the beaten pathway leading to your home.^ 



The ultimate and general effect of machinery upon farm 

 laborers and, of course, upon all farm workers, has been quite 

 thoroughly and pretty accurately summarized as follows: ''As to 

 the influence of machinery on farm labor, all intelligent expert 

 observation declares it beneficial. It has relieved the laborer of 

 much drudgery ; made his work easier and his hours of service 

 shorter ; stimulated his mental faculties ; given an equilibrium of 

 effort to mind and body ; and made the laborer a more efficient 

 worker, a broader man, and a better citizen." ^ 



1 The elimination of exhausting manual labor by the substitution of powerful 

 machinery for puny arms has emancipated labor in our day from its hardest tasks, 

 and has given to the worker both inclination and leisure for the development of 

 his intellect in various ways that were impossible under former conditions. 

 A. E. OuTERBRiDGE, Jr., " Machinery and the Man," Scientific American Supple- 

 ment, Vol. LI, p. 21235 



2 Threshing was then, as it remained till our time, when it has been almost 

 superseded Tjy machinery, the chief farm work of the winter. Rogers, 

 " History of Agriculture and Prices," Vol. I, p. i 5 



' To follow the team in the furrow, day after day, is very tiresome work and 

 has the effect of giving the boy a heavy awkward gait by stiffening the lower 

 limbs a condition from which he seldom if ever recovers. M. L. Dunlap, 

 U.S. Agr. Report, 1863, p. 417 



* J. R. Dodge, American Farm Labor, in Report of the Industrial Commission, 

 1901, Vol. XI, p. III. 



