ANNUAL ADDRESS. 
291 
of the proportion the cost of an inclosure bears to all the other 
expenses of the farmer; though I cannot remember exactly 
what that proportion was. Any farmer, if he will, can ascer¬ 
tain it in his own case, for himself. 
Again, a great amount of 66 locomotion'’ is spared by thor¬ 
ough cultivation. Take fifty bushels of wheat, ready for the 
harvest, standing upon a single acre, and it can be harvested 
in any of the known ways, with less than half the labor which 
would be required if it were spread over five acres. This 
would be true, if cut by the old hand sickle ; true, to a.greater 
extent, if by the scythe and cradle ; and to a still greater ex¬ 
tent, if by the machines now in use. These machines are 
chiefly valuable, as a means of substituting auimal power for 
the power of men in this branch of farm work. In the highest 
degree of perfection yet reached in applying the horse power 
to harvesting, fully nine-tenths of the power is expended by 
the animal in carrying himself and dragging the machine over 
the field, leaving certainly not more than'one-tenth to be applied 
directly to the only end of the whole operation—the gathering 
in of the grain, and clipping of the straw. When grain is very 
thin on the ground, it is always more or less intermingled with 
weeds, chess and the like, and a large part of the power is ex¬ 
pended in cutting these. It is plain that when the crop is very 
thick upon the ground, a larger proportion of the power is di¬ 
rectly applied to gathering in and cutting it ; and the smaller, 
to that which is totally useless as an end. And what I have 
said of harvesting is true, in a greater or less degree of mow¬ 
ing, plowing, gathering in of crops generally, and, indeed, of 
almost all farm work. 
\ 
The effect of thorough cultivation upon the farmer’s own 
mind, and, in reaction through his mind, back upon his busi¬ 
ness, is perhaps quite equal to any other of its effects. Every 
man is proud of what he does well ;{and no man is proud of 
that he does not well.} With the former, his heart is in his 
work ; and he will do twice as much of it with less fatigue. 
The latter performs a little imperfectly, looks at it in disgust, 
