3IetIiods of Economizing Labour. 
119 
crushing, root and chaff-culting, churning-, (tc. They are much 
used by the railway companies, and sometimes even in ferry- 
boats for turning the paddle-wheel, and the general retention 
of them in a country where steam and mechanics are so well 
understood is not without significance. 
In large concerns, as on farms which grow their thousands of 
bushels of grain, or at central railway stations, where hundreds 
of cords of wood are consumed daily, steam is, no doubt, 
the cheapest power that can be used, for this mighty but 
cumbrous agent defies the competition of bone and muscle in 
all cases where a large amount of regular routine work has to 
be accomplished, but must certainly yield to the latter the merit 
of readier adaptation to constantly varying requirements. On 
small holdings these horse-powers furnish, I firmly believe, the 
most economical mode of applying that force which every farm 
possesses, and which there can be no economy in leaving unem- 
ploved. I am convinced tbev would be found a great conveni- 
ence to many small farmers in this country ; and in many of our 
colonies, where steam is out of the question, they would be in- 
valuable. Ttieir compactness gives them a great advantage with 
rej:ard to freight, to economv of space in the farmyard, and to 
portability, for, if wanted at a distant part of the farm to thresh 
an outlying crop in the field, the " power " is forthwith put into 
a waggon and drawn to the spot by the horses which, when 
arrived there, work it. 
The straw from the threshing-machine is very commonly 
conveyed to the rick by an endless band or web, which is 
carried over a roller on the threshing-machine and another roller 
on the rick, and moved by a belt from tiie horse-power, and thus 
delivers the straw at a distance of 18 or 20 feet with the help of 
only one man to distribute it and attend to the top roller. 
The cost of tliis simple and useful contrivance is 15 dollars 
(3/.). I see an English machine, for effecting the same object, 
advertised at the price of from 51Z. to 62/., according to the 
distance of the delivery ! The saving in labour effected by this 
plan is very great. 
Let us next inquire how the crop is cut, or " harvested," as the 
term is there. 
It is a mistake to suppose that reaping-machines are in general 
use in the States, their principal service is in the vast grain-fields 
of the Western or Prairie States, where despatch is of the utmost 
importance, and hired labour hardly known. In the great and 
populous States of New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, 
the grain scythe and cradle is the implement wherewith most of 
the grain is levelled : a most efficient implement it is, and a most 
useful one it would prove if introduced into this country, for it is 
