416 AGRICULTURAL PROGRESS. 



agricultural implements whicli are moved by steam must 

 be profitable in a certain ratio to the extent of even and 

 uninterrupted surface which is to be tilled. On small 

 fields it would be impossible to use them with success. 

 Hence the necessity of farming by associated capital, and 

 of greatly increasing the size of farms by converting many 

 into one. Under such " improved " conditions, the pres- 

 ent system of farming could not stand in competition 

 with steam-farming. The agricultural corporations, with 

 their implements operated by steam, would cultivate ten 

 acres with less expense than is now employed in culti- 

 vating one acre. If the moral and physical improvement 

 of mankind were to be the effect of this new system, the 

 prospect would be delightful. But no such happy results 

 would spring from it ; laboring men, instead of being 

 elevated into lords, would be degraded into mere ma- 

 chines. 



Men are too prone to base their theories of human pro- 

 gress on the assumption that labor is a curse, and not, as 

 it is, when freely and justly rewarded, a blessing. But 

 labor ceases to be free when the laborers are under the 

 control and in the power of mammoth associations. La- 

 bor then becomes servitude, which is closely allied to 

 slavery. No one would say that, under the present cir- 

 cumstances of the country, the operatives in our factories, 

 however well paid, are as free as our farmers, masons, and 

 carpenters. When labor is performed by powerful ma- 

 chines, man becomes a slave to the machinery ; when, on 

 the other hand, the implements in use are small, the 

 machinery is the servant of man. The production will 

 be greater in the former case ; but the health and freedom 

 of man are sacrificed to obtain it. The object of the 

 statesman and the philanthropist should be to make the 

 people free, virtuous, and happy ; and any increase of 

 the national wealth which is obtained at the expense of 



