6 FARM MACHINERY 



the same work is accomplished in I hour and 39 min- 

 utes. The cost of the required labor has decreased from 

 83 1/3 cents to 16 1/4 cents a ton. Not only is it true 

 that machinery has revolutionized the work of making 

 hay, but nearly every phase of farm work has been essen- 

 tially changed. 



11. Quality of products. Machinery has also improved 

 the quality of farm products. Corn and other grains are 

 planted at very nearly the proper time, owing to the fact 

 that machinery methods are so much quicker. By hand 

 methods the crop did not have time to mature. It was 

 necessary to begin the harvest before the grain was ripe, 

 and hence it was shrunken. The grain is obtained now 

 cleaner and purer. It would be difficult at the present 

 time to sell, for bread purposes, grain which had been 

 threshed by the treading of animals over it. 



12. Summary. Great changes can be accounted for by 

 the introduction of machine methods for hand methods. 

 For all people this has been beneficial. It has caused the 

 rise of our great nation on the Western Hemisphere. To 

 no class, however, has this change been more beneficial 

 than to the farm worker himself. J. R. Dodge sum- 

 marized the benefits derived by the farm worker when 

 he wrote: "As to the influence of machinery on farm 

 labor, all intelligent expert observation declares it bene- 

 ficial. It has relieved the laborer of much drudgery; 

 made his work and his hours of service shorter; stimu- 

 lated his mental faculties ; given an equilibrium of effort 

 to mind and body ; made the laborer a more efficient 

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



Conditions in America have been very favorable for 

 the development of machinery. We have never had an 



*American Farm Labor in Rept. of Ind. Com. (1901), Vol. XL, 

 p. m, 



