INTRODUCTION 3 



made. Their grain was threshed by driving horses over 

 it in the open field. When they ground it they used a 

 rude pestle and mortar, or placed it in a hollow of a 

 stone and beat it with another." 



3. Effects of the change. At any rate, a great change 

 has taken place and all in little over a half century. This 

 great change from the simplest of tools to the modern, 

 almost perfect implements, has produced a marked effect 

 upon the life of the farmer. He is no longer "the man 

 with the hoe," but a man well trained intellectually. 



4. Physical and mental changes. It is not difficult to 

 realize that a great change for the better has taken place 

 in the physical and mental nature of the farmer. It is 

 vastly easier for a man to sit on a modern harvester, 

 watch the machine, and drive the team, than it is to work 

 all day with bended back, scuffling along, running a 

 cradle. How much easier it is to handle the modern 

 crop, though much larger, with the modern threshing 

 machine, where the bundles are simply thrown into the 

 feeder, than to spend the entire winter beating the grain 

 out with a flail. The farmer can now do his work and 

 still have time to plan his business and to think of im- 

 provements. 



5. Length of the working day. One of the marked 

 effects of the change to modern machinery methods has 

 been a shortening of the length of the working day. 

 When the work was done by hand methods, the day 

 during the busy season was from early morn till late at 

 night. Often as much as 16 hours a day were spent in 

 the fields. Now field work seldom exceeds 10 hours a day. 



6. Increase in wages. According to McMaster,* in 

 1794 ''in the States north of Pennsylvania" the wages of 



*McMaster: "History of the People of the United States," 

 Vol. II., p. 179. 



