The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1882-03-01

EXTRACT from an Essay READ before the
Tuckahoe Farmers Club of Henrico county.
Va. January. 26th, 1882 by Col. John H Guy
Capital and mechanical contrivances
have usurped the trades of the artisan Of
a past generation; and a single mammoth
establishment now turns out at a greatly
reduced cost a volume of manufactured
products sufficient for the supply of
whole community.
Then the question arises, Is the farmer
to remain unaffected by the causes that
have produced such results in other de
partments of manual industry? Is agri-
culture to reap no benefits from labor
saving machinery? Must the seed be
still deposited by the human hand and
covered by the seedman's tread? Must
the harvest of corn or cotton or hay be
plucked, as it were, with the fingers, or
sowed and gathered in handfuls by the
sweep of the arm? Must the earth be
dug with hoe and spade or furrowed by
the limited strength of the horse or the
ox2
Certainly agricultural operations pre-
sent, on the whole, no greater difficulties
in the way of machinery tnan other
kinds of work where machinery has been
successfully applied. One might have
supposed the sewing, for instance, could
only be done by nim6le fingers, guided
at every stitch of their painful progress
by human intelligence; but any such an
ticipated difficulty has been proved to be
imaginary Without, however, drawing
illustrations from other departments OF
industry, look only at what mechanical
hoe OIL c.,
ture itself. We have no longer need for
the fail or the winnowing floor. He
must have but little Indian corn who can
afford to shell it from the cob by hand
We have the gang plough and the power
OF steam to drive it, doing the work of
many men and many horses, and doing
1T far more effectively than it has been
done by former processes. We have
machinery that sewers the hay; machinery
that cures it for housing, and machinery
that lifts it from the wagon and deposits
in on the NOW. The scythe cradle is
passing away, as did its predecessor the
reap hook; and the strong men who
welded it, not lacking in vigor and
spirit, for these were attested by the
Joyous shouts that enlivened the harvest
field, and the army of demure but busy
pickers and binders that followed their
stalwart leaders and secured the scat
tered grain with finger and rake, are all
standing aside while the reaper-ad-
mirable now in its infancy, but no doubt
destined to great improvement and far
greater eficiency-passes and clips every
stalk of the growing grain and gathers it
into bundles and binds it with Irvine.
further this presentation of the subject
Enough has been said or suggested to
sustain this proposition; that as has al.
ready taken place in almost all of the
leading branches of production, so the
operations required in agriculture may
very largely, even now, and will, in the
near future, almost wholly be best per
formed by means of machinery. The
farmer who works with the hand and
with the simple implements of the past,
and with the assistance of the horse and
the OK, will not be able to compete with
the farmer whose capital is sufficient to
enable him to avail himself of machinery
and of natural forces like steam wherever
they can be substituted for the work OF
man or beast. This statement, in the
light of what machinery has done and is
doing and is apparently yet to do, seems
evident.
Now what is the position in reference
to this matter of the small farmer and
the large farmer?
The former cannot afford the heavy adj
ditional investment of capital which a
full supply of the best agricultural ma
chinery would involve The interest on
the additional capital thus invested. and
the wear and tear and consequent repairs
OF the machinery, would absorb all pos
slble margin of profit on the whole pro.
ductions of a small farm. It is only
after we reach certain amount of corn
to be shelled, that it will pay to own
even an inexpensive corn shelter. But
take the case Of the self-binding reaper
and first-class thresher and separator.
The joint cost of the two would be per
haps $500. The farmer whose wheat
crop reaches only few hundred bushels.
would find that it would take the whole
net proceeds of many crops to meet this
outlay, while the farmer whose crop goes
up into the thousands, may be reimbursed
by the profits of single year. Again :
on $500 the annual interest would be
$50, and the annual wear and tear on
the implements would probably be 10
per cent, or $50 more; and at the end
OF q certain purn her If vaore tbo i'm Mo