294 WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
It is to be hoped that the steam plow will he finally success¬ 
ful! ? and if ifc shall be, “ thorough cultivation ”—putting the soil 
to the top of its capacity—producing the largest crop possible 
from a given quantity of ground—will be most favorable for it. 
Doing a large amount of work upon a small quantity of ground 
it will be, as nearly as possible, stationary while working, and 
as free as possible from locomotion ; thus expending its 
strength as much as possible upon its work, and as little as pos¬ 
sible in traveling. Our thanks, and something more substan¬ 
tial than thanks, are due to every man engaged in the effort to 
produce a successful steam plow. Even the unsuccessful will 
bring something to light which in the hands of others will con- 
tribute to the final success. I have not pointed out difficulties, 
in order to discourage, but in order that, being seen, they may 
be the more readily overcome. 
The world is agreed that labor is the source from which hu¬ 
man wants are mainly supplied. There is no dispute upon this 
point. From this point, however, men immediately diverge. 
Much disputation is maintained as to the best way of applying 
and controlling the labor element. By some it is assumed that 
labor is available only in connection with capital—that nobody 
labors, unless somebody else owning capital, somehow, by the 
use of it, induces him to do it. Having assumed this, they 
proceed to consider whether it is best that capital shall hire la¬ 
borers, and thus induce them to work by their own consent, or 
buy them, and drive them to it, without their consent.. Having- 
proceeded so far, they naturally conclude that all laborers are 
naturally either hired laborers or slaves. They further assume 
that whoever is once a hired laborer, is fatally fixed in that con¬ 
dition for life; and thence again, that his condition is as bad as, 
or worse, than that of a slave. This is the “mud-sill’' theory. 
But another class of reasoners hold the opinion that there is 
no such relation between capital and labor, as assumed ; and 
that there is no such thing as a freeman being fatally fixed for 
life, in the condition of a hired laborer, that both these assump¬ 
tions are false, and all inferences from them groundless. They 
