Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. 
183 
of the drill a saving of one-third of the amount of seed required 
to sow an acre, which saving would of itself pay for the drill in 
sowing two hundred acres, allowing it to cost one hundred dollars. 
No comparison will be instituted as to the quality or the amount 
of crops which would result from hand or machine sowing or cul¬ 
tivation, but I simply make the assertion that machinery is obtain¬ 
able which will show a like gain in what is not the least important 
branch of agriculture, namely, the harvesting and housing of our 
crops. We freely grant that we have chosen rather extreme cases of 
labor-saving in the machinery directly cited, but will reduce the com¬ 
parative advantage of modern machinery applicable to the operations 
upon the farm, to the low estimate of two to one as compared with 
such implements as were in use twenty or thirty years since; con¬ 
sidering that this low estimate will cover first cost, repairs, shelter, 
&c., even at the high rates paid since the war. 
We look to the use of horse or steam power in connection with 
well constructed and well adapted machinery to solve in a great 
measure this labor question for the farmer, more than doubling the 
value of his own time, and rendering each horse of more worth than 
the average hired man. 
But we must pass to the other advantages arising to the farmer 
;md his famlv as more or less directly derived from the use of ma¬ 
chinery; we mean its influence and bearings on general culture and 
social condition. We have seen that the use of machinery so 
facilitates farming operations that there is at least 50 per cent, of 
the farmer’s time gained to him which he may use in reading, im¬ 
proving and adorning his farm and house, attending conventions, 
lectures, concerts, fairs and other places where profit, pleasure and 
knowledge of the world is to be obtained, under circumstances cal¬ 
culated to wear off his awkwardness, broaden his views, and make 
him less a mere machine and more a manager and participator in 
the general life around him. 
Instead of plodding home wearily in the dim twilight, or by the 
light of the moon after a prolonged day of toil, he can ride home 
with light feet and a frame simply refreshed by light exercise in 
sunlight and fresh air, ready to put things to rights around house 
and barn, to give the garden and orchard a visit, to read or write 
with zest and enjoyment during the evening, a fit companion for 
wife and children. 
