The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-01-21
An Eloquent Description of the
Development
OF FARMERS METHODS
Effect of Machinery on the
Farmers Mentality.
The Governor Looks for Even
More Wonderful Changes.

In discussing the development of the
agricultural resources of Kansas during
the past quarter of a century through the
| means of improved machinery, Governor
Leedy says:
AS I contemplate the great progress
made IN this state during the past TWEEN
5y-hVe years, my mind reverts to the
days of the double-shovel and the cradle:
to the days of broadcast seeding when
with rhythmic motion and steady steD the
farmer cast seed upon the surface Of the
soil and followed by the bows with
the old STRAIGHTFORWARD harrow: to the
Ia wing time with its scythe. lis aching
backs its forks, carts, many hands
ana hard cider; to the corn stripping,
husking bees and frolics; to harvest with
It's score of hands and hand-bound
sheaves, its toll and MOL; to the old
horsepower thresher, with its score or
more of men, its dust and roar: to the
cabin home or the sod house with it's
lumber wagon or its pony.
when / look back and live over again
the days of old, then view the scene to-
day, the transition seems one of the mar
Kansas was not the agricultural garden
she is today. Her pioneers encountered
- 4I ~ carry SCI
tiers. but her people then, as now, We're
ed machinery and as the inventive genius
of man prompted new methods in labor
ed new methods. and today 1 presume to
say that the Kansas farmer is the most
progressive agriculturist in the United
Instead of the doubIe-shovel in the ten
acre cornfield of yesterday, we have the
riding cultivator in the hundred acre field
of today. The header and the binder
have displaced the cradle and the drop
per The making of the dOuble-straw
band is a lost art with the present gener-
alton and the boys who used to carry
the bundles now latch the mechanical
bundle carrier do the work Broadcasting
is no more and the drill or the mechanical
broadcaster takes the place of the hand
of man. The modern pulverizer and the
the double a or the drag Haying time
is 0f
mowers. it's rakes and leaders and its
great nav forks The old fashioned corn
knife yields to the modern cutter and the
farmer of today cuts more fodder in ten
hours than he used to cut in week.
of the roar of the horsepower is heard
the shrek of the steam WHISTLE and in
from the carrier we have the cyclone
stacker with a single man to operate it
house, we have the modern frame or the
brick. In the place of the wagon and the
ponies we have the carriage or the cart.
'sThe effect of machinery upon the ag
ricuIturist is practically the same as the
Of society. The invention OF labof saving
machines. no difference IN what depart
idence of the triumph Of mind oyer mat
ter Man performs physical labor only
because ne IS coI5lpelle1 f 70 ~ ~ 81 $500
labor saving machine OF Whlcn the farmer
has been able to avail himself has tended
to tighten his physical burden. and to an
equal extent. has given him an opportupl-
~ to cultivate those higher instincts by
reason of which he is a man.
''The farmers of Kansas are today the
best informed men, as class. of any
people in this nation. They spend more
money for and burn more midnight oil
in the study of books bearing upon the
This age than any people in the world.
They have derived the benefits incident el1
to the use of improved machinery for the
mast quarter of a century. less the evils
incident to corporate robbery and a con- n
fbair 1roducts as measured in dollars and
cents. and I predict they will prove them