Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1891-02-14
EarH4 XHsreatte,
The Idol-Breaking Census.


face to face with numerous Industrial,
economical and social problems of
grave import. 1t makes clear, in
many case, what was but dimly
discerned before, especially that the
rural population has reached its limit
in all but a few of the newer States,
and is diminishing in many of the
older ones.
In the New-England and Middle
States, perhaps, such dimlnution may
be attributed IN part TO the unprofit>
ableness of agriculture and the cOnse~
quent abandonment of farms and the
conversion Of fields into permanent
pasture or meadow, but it is more
largely due to the same causes as
have been somewhat more clearly in
operation farther west, 1. e., a pros
gressive increase in the invention and
use of labor-saving devices displacing
great numbers of farm laborers. The
changes wrought in husbandry by
these inventions during the past forty
years have been immense. but so
gradual and continuous as
to attract far less attention, and
to be less appreciated than they
would have been if coming in one.
fourth the time. Still, their effects
are none the less pronounced far
reaching. Forty years ago it was a
good days work to cradle and bind
two acres Of wheat Now, with the
largest self-binder one man will east.
ly cut and bind - acres a day, thus
displacing six men who must seek
other employment. In the other
processes Ofwheat growing, especially
in the West and California, the saving
OF labor is nearly as great, the land
being plowed with gangs Of two,
three and four ploWs turning burrows
of from p to II inches, and often
with harrow attached in the rear,
AMI one man operating the two inn
plements; then the seed is soWn with
press drills covering width Of IL
feet, and enabling one man with
four horses to SOW from % to % acres
per day in excellent shape: and
when harvested, if the yield is a fair
one, the steam thresher will rattle
out the grain at the rate of 1000 to
l,2OO bushels per day, at an outside
cost of 6 cents per bushel where the
thresher-man contracts to do all the
work.
Like economies obtain in growing
oats, rye and barley, while the i'm
provements in corn culture are equal
ly great. Forty years ago corn lane
was furrowed out one way, and if
was desired to plant in the best man
ner, marked out the other, the seeC
dropped by hand and covered with {
hoe. Then came the one>horse-one
row planter and the hand planter
to be followed by the check-rOwer
enabling one man, after the grounC
Was prepared, to plant ten and ever
fifteen acres per day by changing
teams and rushing the work.
Later still came the Lister, which
on suitable lands, like the friabl
looms of the Missouri valley, enable
one man with three horses to prepar
and plant from six to nine acres pc
day, and then with improved cult
vators to work an equal number c
acres per day; so that with tn
(single) Lister and improved cult
waiting devices, the labor involved i
preparing the land, planting and cuI
tivating each acre of "IiSted corn"
but six-tenths of one days work
Yet now comes the inventor claim
ing that he has a double two.ro'
Lister, which will enable one man
prepare the land and plant from 10
IS acres per day, and he is accompt
MED and supplemented by a Kans'
man, who has recently patented
a two>hOrse three~row cultivate
which completes the cultivation
two rows of corn every time I
crosses the field, thus doubling IL
capacity Of each man employed, an
necessarily throwing Cne,half II
corn cultivators out of employmel
and forcing them into towns.
1t is possible that neither of the
implements may, as yet, be so pc
fected as to do just what their inver
Ors claim; but the operations whit
they are intended to perform are n
complex, and their success is,
most, question of one or two veal
l believe the two-row cultivator
already an assured success, and e
pect with these two implements to