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each other to see who should prevail in producing labor- 

 saviQg implements and machinery. In comparison, it 

 is computed that our present facilities for cultivating 

 the earth and manufacturing our fabrics, saves five- 

 sixths of the physical labor in producing the same results. 

 We look upon the plow with wonder, when we compare 

 it with the old iron share and wooden mold-board that 

 were in use in the days of our fathers, and it would 

 seem that the last touch was made to consummate per- 

 fection in this first and most important implement in 

 the art of farming. Also, the harrow, the cultivator, 

 horse-rake, mowing and reaping machines. 



"A man standing on Mount Zion, Rock County, Wis., 

 counted on the surrounding plain below, one hundred 

 and sixty-four horse power reaping machines, cutting 

 down wheat, and one thousand men, women and chil- 

 dren following after binding up the golden sheaves." — 

 This was a sight worth seeing, from one point beholding 

 the grain falling and being gathered up at the rate of 

 two hundred acres per hour. " On one farm in Illinois, 

 grew a thousand acres of wheat, where there were 

 twelve reaping machines used, and it was all stacked 

 up in five days.'* Under the old system of cutting by 

 hand, it would have required an army of one hundred 

 men to cradle it in the same length of time ; and before 

 the hand-cradle was brought intc use it would have 

 taken five hundred men. This demonstrates the incal- 

 cuable value in saving labor by implements and 

 machinery to the agriculturist. 



This is not all the mechanic has done. Oar manu- 

 facturing establishments are a wonder of the age. We 

 see what has been accomplished, what man has wrought 



