blankets to a horde of
lazy Indians, or for the building of two or three warships. But it is at
least more than is being spent on the New Farmer in any other country.

Step by step farming is becoming a sure and scientific profession. The
risks and uncertainties that formerly tossed the farmer back and forth,
between hope and despair, are being mastered. The Weather Bureau, which
sent half a million warnings last year to the farmers, has already become
so skilful that six-sevenths of its predictions come true. In Kansas,
wheat-growing has become so sure that there has been no failure for
thirteen years. And in the vast South-West, the trick of irrigation is
changing the man-killing desert into a Farmers' paradise, where there is
nothing so punctual as the crops.

Already gasolene engines are in use among the New Farmers. The
International Harvester Company made twenty-five thousand of them last
year at Milwaukee, without supplying the demand. These engines, in the
near future, will be operated with alcohol, which the farmers can distil
from potatoes at a cost of ten cents a gallon. This is no dream, as there
are now six thousand alcohol engines in use on the farms of Germany alone.

When this Age of Alcohol arrives, the making of the New Farmer will be
very nearly complete. _He will then grow his own power, and know how to
harness for his own use the omnipotence of the soil._

* * * * *

Transcriber's note:

Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).

On page 31, the figure "$1,300,00" is presented as in the original.

On page 106, the image of a triangle has been replaced with [triangle].

The following misprints have been corrected:
"Doubelday" corrected to "Doubleday" (title page)
"Bejamin" corrected to "Benjamin" (page 67)
"consistingly" corrected to "consisting" (page 74)
"McCormich" corrected to "McCormick" (page 102)
"eet" corrected to "Meet" (page 131)

Other than the corrections listed above, inconsistencies in spelling
and hyphenation usage have been retained.

Punctuation has been corrected without note.

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ROMANCE OF THE REAPER***

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