4 FARM MANAGEMENT 



4. The farmer as a skilled laborer. A generation 

 ago, the farmer was primarily a laborer. His machinery 

 consisted of a wagon, walking plow, harrow, cultivator, 

 hand corn planter, grain cradle, scythe, hand rake, flail, 

 ax, hoe, pitchfork, and a few other tools. All of these 

 were muscle testers. If he worked hard all day, he was 

 ready for a night's rest. He did not have to read a 

 bulletin on scientific agriculture to put him to sleep. 

 Physical strength and physical skill were among the 

 greatest assets, and were so recognized by all farmers. 

 If a man had common sense, and if he and his wife were 

 strong, their success was assured, for success was in 

 raising each summer a little more than enough food and 

 clothing for the winter. 



Many persons, who are not closely in touch with farm- 

 ing, believe that the introduction of machinery has done 

 away with the necessity for strength and skill in manual 

 operations, but these will always be very important con- 

 siderations for the farmer. Few people realize how hard it 

 is to acquire this manual skill. The writer has had an 

 opportunity to see the efforts of many city persons, and 

 has been surprised to see how difficult it is to acquire 

 manual dexterity. The children on the farm learn by years 

 of practice. It takes thousands of efforts for the boy to 

 learn to throw a baseball straight. Apparently it is just as 

 difficult to learn to pitch hay. If this skill is acquired by 

 ten years of practice in childhood, little is thought about it, 

 but if it is to be acquired by a mature man, it is a serious 

 undertaking. Milking, using a saw, using an ax, and a 

 thousand other manual operations are hard for a grown 

 person to learn ; but if one has been used to manual labor 

 so that he has trained muscles, new operations are not so 

 difficult. Grown persons who have never learned to do 



