316 THE LESSONS TAUGHT. 



four dollars and fifty cents, while the cost of their 

 equivalent in men would be not far from nine dollars. 

 This calculation is based on the cost of keeping the 

 team and price of labor on small farms, and it seems to 

 show the economy of machine labor there. How much 

 more valuable may it not be on the large farms of the 

 Middle and Western States ? 



But, with regard to the economy of the use of the 

 machine, it seems to me that, even if the cost per acre 

 were the same as by hand labor, — and all unite in 

 putting it less, — we should, nevertheless, consider it a 

 great and clear gain to have it in our power to substi- 

 tute machinery which will cut grass well and rapidly 

 at a time when labor is very difficult to obtain, with- 

 out paying an exorbitant price for it. And even sup- 

 posing the money cost of hand and horse labor to be 

 the same, there is still this further consideration in 

 favor of the machine, that, as a general rule, every 

 mechanical operation which can be effected at all by 

 machinery will be performed more accurately, more 

 uniformly, and therefore more economically, than by 

 hand labor. 



Among the important lessons taught us by the use 

 of the machine is, that the fewer division fences on the 

 farm the better. It has been the custom, from time im- 

 memorial, in some parts of the country, to dispose of 

 the stones turned out by the plough in ugly-looking 

 stone walls, which mar the beauty of the farm, and 

 occupy much land which is now thought to be worth 

 something for the purposes of cultivation. The idea 

 was to have a frequent change of pasturage for cattle, 

 rather than to allow them to range over a wide extent, 

 without much confinement. This minute subdivision 

 of farms is a great impediment to the economical use 

 of machinery, and even of animal power to any great 



