MECHANICS OF AGRICILTURE. OO 



dealt with in the treatment of spades and digging tools 

 generally. Irrigation is not possible without effective 

 drainage, allowing the water to soak into the soil. 



The sugar business is much indebted to engineering. 

 The improvement made, both in the speed of doing the 

 work and the cost of production, is nothing short of wonder- 

 ful. The quality of the product is also vastly improved. 

 Yet there are many, openings for farther advances. The 

 author will mention one only on this occasion the want of 

 a machine to cut down cane in the field. There is a fortune 

 for the man who perfects a contrivance of that kind. The 

 difficulties in the way are all of the mechanical kind, and 

 they are to be overcome by the man who studies the subject 

 carefully, but it must be in the field, and while the crop is 

 being harvested. 



Good Tools theC heapest Labour. What mechanical 

 skill, worked out upon scientific lines, is doing for agricul- 

 ture is very clearly demonstrated in the value of agricul- 

 tural labour in various parts of the world. Taken as a 

 whole, the American agriculturist and the labour he 

 employs, produces and makes most out of his produce. 

 Possibly, Australia comes next, and the condition is assisted 

 materially by the fact that Australian agriculturists use 

 American machines and implements more generally than is 

 usual in Europe, which comes next in the earnings from 

 agriculture. India, which is amongst the oldest agricul- 

 tural nations, otters telling illustration that cheap labour is 

 not able to compete with the skilful use of modern 

 machinery. The average labour wages of India is barely 

 2 id. per day. In America and Australia the average is 

 between 3s. and (5s. per day. The Indian farmer uses the 

 implements of his ancestors, and the product of his labour 

 is worth about (hi. per day, or Ad. per hour, for his working 

 days are long. The American fanner's labour brings in an 

 average of (iid. per hour. He produces enough wheat to 

 supply the requirements of three hundred people. The actual 

 estimate is that four men, working with modern appliances 

 in the field and the mill, produce enough flour for 1000 

 people ! European fanning is away behind in the averag* 1 

 per hand produced. In Britain it is but little more than 



