2,105

In one of the states of the South Atlantic division the average price
of farm labor, without board, was $12 per month, while in one of the
states of the western division the price on the same date was $31.
Why? Because in the latter case a man's labor was more productive. In
the South Atlantic division, in producing the chief crops cotton and
maize, a man uses one mule in preparing and cultivating the soil. In
the western division plowing and harrowing with six-horse teams is
common and nine-horse teams are not unusual. The cotton picker in one
day will be able to gather not to exceed 300 pounds of seed cotton,
worth not more than $15. The western wheat will be harvested by a
machine drawn by 28 horses. In the same time four men with this outfit
will cut and thresh 700 bushels of wheat, worth $500.

When the threshing machine was first introduced in Ohio, it was
stubbornly opposed by all farm laborers. "They claimed it," says
Bateman, "as a right to thresh with a flail, and regarded the
introduction of machinery to effect the same object in a few days
which would require their individual exertion during the whole winter,
not only as an invasion of a time-honored custom, but as absolutely
depriving them of the means of obtaining an honest livelihood. At a
later date, when a reaper had been introduced into a field of ripe
wheat as a matter of experiment only, every one of the harvest hands
deliberately marched out of the field and told the proprietor that he
might secure his crop as best he could, that the threshing machine had
deprived them of their regular winter work twenty years ago and now
the reaper would deprive them of the pittance they otherwise could
earn during harvest." How short-sighted they were! No class gained so
much from the introduction of labor-saving machinery as did those who
did the labor. The reason for the increase in well-being, the reason
society enjoys luxuries and comforts beyond the fondest dreams of
former generations, is due to the fact that the labor of each man has
been made so much more effective through these labor-saving devices.
The humblest citizen shares in this improvement. Not all share alike
and not all share equitably, but each generation sees its members
sharing more equitably than those of any generation which preceded it.

The proposition is an extremely simple one. If a man produces just
enough food for himself and family, he will have nothing for cloth