The Kenosha telegraph and tribune. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1859-1860, 1859-09-01
labor and Agricultural Machi.


it Is fact which must be annarent IN avarv
man, that machinery is rapidly every year s,l-
percedIng manual labor in all departments of in.
dustry, especially in agricultural operations
The demand for laborers during the past harvest
mas been less than any preceding year; this ma Y
10 considerable extent, be attributable to the
unusually favorable weather which has enabled
farmers to get their grain crops with less hired
help than heretofore but it is also owing to the
more general employment of agricultural machi-
merry. With the various machinery now employ
ed, and the still more improved which is sure to
follow. the demand for farm laborers is likely to
be decreased every year.
There are large numbers of laborinp men in
| every town who depend largely on the annual
harvest season to earn support for themselves
and families This class have been less fortu-
nate during the past season, in finding steady
employment than usual. We have heard very
many complain of the difficulty to get work the
harvesting machines cut down the large fields of
grain with great rapidlty; the moving machines
cut the grass, and the horse rakes soon finish III
meadows. Scores of laboring men, anxious for
employment, stand idly looking on, and see vas
fields harvested by machinery, attended by few
men, where once great numbers were reouired
to accomplish the work. The progress of labor
saving machinery is becoming a serious ques-
ton to day laborers, who have been accustomed
to rely on employment in the agricultural dis
tricts during portions of the year. The progress
OF labor-saving machinery they cannot arres t !;
It will go on from year to year, achieving new
uts,and dispensing more and more with hand
labor. Whoever believes that ingenuity AMI
skill are exhausted in the production of further
improvements, is entirely mistaken; invention
for labor-saving. has but just commenced. The
next twenty years will far outstrip in progress
the past twenty years; results deemed visiona-
ry and i'm ossible by the present genetation,
will be accomplished by the next.
Laboring men who depend upon periodical
employment for support should look to the
tendency ofthngs, and prepare to avert the con-
sequences 4hcre is but one safe and reliable
alternative to be adopted-but one sure means
OF providing against the interference of machi-
merry on their accustomed channels of employ
ment. Land is now cheap--never cheaper in
the new settlements of the West. Government
lands can be had in this State at the graduation
price OF fifty cents an acre to actual settlers -
Many OF these lands are of good quality for az.
ricultural purposes. Twenty dollars will buy
forty acre tract enough, if we'll cultivated, to
afford one family with the actual necessities and
comforts of life. What able bodied man. who
does not spend his earnings for Intoxicating
drinks, Or other worthless purposes, cannot save
enough beyond his current necessities, to pur
chase piece of land for homestead-a home
stead which the laws of the State secure to hin
against subsequent misfortune. farm, how
ever small. guards against condition of depen
dency, and ennobles the possessor. There are
hundreds and thousands of strong, healthy mer
in this State, with young families, who liv,
wholly dependent upon promiscuous employ
ment' and who find their pecuniary condition a
the end of each succeeding year not at all i'm
proved, but frequently rendered more precariou
by decreased family cares and expenses. Al
such, ought at once, to direct their energ;as :,
Q the procurement of small farm, and TINS es
cape cond iton of mere dependency from yea
: to year.