869] Machinery and Labor 71 



gether is represented by 58.4 per cent, then the in- 

 crease in the income of the independent class alone 

 could be indicated only by a much higher number. 

 How much higher we cannot tell, probably not less 

 than 75 or 80 per cent. For the period from 1850 to 

 1 900 the rate should, doubtless, be more than doubled. 

 The independent farmer of the present day, who has 

 hired workmen, does not find it needful to work always 

 at the same laborious tasks he sets for his employees. 

 At harvest time, it is not the hired man but the farmer 

 himself who tends the machines and does the lighter 

 work. Farm buildings are more substantial and sup- 

 plied with more conveniences than they were fifty, or 

 even twenty, years ago. Good roads abound, and, 

 probably not less than one-fourth of the farmers now 

 have the advantages of a free delivery of mail. 1 Tele- 

 phone service between farm houses and connecting 

 with the neighboring towns, or cities, is by no means 

 uncommon. Railway and electric car lines run through 

 the farming districts and where formerly there was a 

 back-country farm house there is now, not infrequently, 

 a suburban home. These advantages enable the modern 

 farmer to keep well abreast of the times and to inform 

 himself concerning measures and events nearly, if not 

 quite as well, as the average resident of the towns.' 



l The Superintendent of Free Delivery, iii a letter dated January 27 

 1903, stated that on February I, 1903, there would "be 13,108 rural 

 routes in operation " and that each carrier " serves an average of 100 

 families." 



2 "The social and ethical sides of farm life are also making progress 

 through the freer intercourse with the world, afforded by improved 

 highways and by the extension of trolley lines. The contact of the 

 younger generation with the life of the city is making new and more 

 progressive methods of living almost a necessity. To-day, on many 

 farms, the ' best room ' is none too good for the family. Musical in- 

 struments are found in a large proportion of the country homes ; a 

 daily paper, some of the best magazines, and often the leading novel 



