46 American Economic Association [844 



follow his work. The zeal which some townspeople 

 manifest in their efforts to persuade the farmers' boys 

 to remain upon the farm betrays a fear that the advent 

 of vigorous blood may diminish the profit which now 

 arises by reason of the somewhat restricted number of 

 competitors. 



It must, however, be noted that the introduction of 

 farm machinery is developing work on the farm very 

 much akin to that done in the town, as for exam- 

 ple, the cutting and grinding of feed for stock. It 

 minimizes the disagreeable features of farm work, 1 

 and is giving opportunity for the exercise of a higher 

 order of intellect in farm work. 2 Many advantages, 

 formerly attainable only in towns, are now accessible 

 to the farming classes 3 so that, at the present time, 

 many of the more capable farmers' boys are finding 

 farm life to be the more advantageous avenue to the 

 wealth and social position which they seek. 



1(4 The introduction of machinery in many branches of industry 

 and more especially in agriculture while increasing, perhaps, the 

 monotony of employment, has also greatly lightened the severity of 

 toil, and in not a few instances has done away with certain forms of 

 labor which were unquestionably brutalizing and degrading, or 

 physically injurious." David A. Wells: Recent Economic Changes, 

 P- 372. 



"There is no more laborious kind of farm work than the spreading 

 of manure ; so much so that in farming on a large scale it is difficult 

 to procure labor for the purpose. This can now be dispensed with. A 

 machine called the manure spreader does all this work ... It does 

 everything in the manuring lire except to use foul language." 

 Scientific American Supplement, Vol. 50, p. 20528. 



2 "The farmer has, by his own progressiveness, gained a better 

 standing in business and in social life than he formerly held. The 

 conditions on New England farms are now such as to attract men of 

 brains and intelligence." Chas. S. Phelps : " Is there a decadence of 

 New England Agriculture," in New England Magazine, Vol. 25, 

 p. 383. 



'Seepage 71, et seq. 



