FARM WORK AND THE AGE OF MACHINERY 419 
Effect of Machinery. — At the present time only about 
one third of our families are on the farm, and they not only 
produce enough surplus for the other two thirds but export 
enormous quantities to foreign countries. This great increase 
in the producing capacity of the farmer was brought about 
by the use of new and improved implements and machines, 
and by the employment of horses and mules for motive power. 
Nowhere else in the history of industry can be found so strik- 
ing an illustration of the beneficial effect of inventions upon 
the welfare of mankind. The successful use of the com- 
plicated machinery of this age is proof of a high grade of 
mental capacity. In countries where we find a lower type 
of intelligence upon the land, the more complicated farm 
machinery cannot be operated, and sometimes through stupid 
prejudice the agricultural toiler refuses to adopt even the 
simpler improvements. In America the introduction of 
machinery has resulted in the cheapening of farm produce, 
has made farm labor much lighter, and has raised the voca- 
tion of the farmer to the rank of a profession. 
Reaping Machines as an Illustration. — Perhaps the best 
‘illustration of the result of the introduction of farm machinery 
is found in the history of harvesting machines. As grain 
gradually falls to the ground and is lost if it is not cut soon 
after ripening, the harvesting of the crop cannot be put off 
till it suits the farmer’s convenience, but must be accom- 
plished in a comparatively short period. The size of the 
farmer’s grain fields is therefore strictly limited to the amount 
he can harvest in good season with the help at his command. 
Since time immemorial the usual method of reaping small 
grains was by means of the hand sickle, which enabled a man 
to cut an acre in three or four days, or from three to five 
acres in an average season. The sickle was in common use 
