The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1909-09-29

DuC he Is WdSUelul VI udIu WOIh, WOIhS udl u
unnecessarily, and goes out OF his way to
do hard work even when it would pay bet
| ter to do the work in easier fashion.
Consider q moment. In late issue we
told of seeing ten one-horse plows in Oper-
alton last spring to one two-horse plow.
, To do as much blowing with the one-horse
plow as with the two-horse plow, the men
who follow these plows have to do twice as
much work. 1t probably took them one
and one-half times as long to get over the
same amount Of land as it would have
taken them with good plows. Here is a
sheer and an enormous waste of labor-an
absolute waste Of labor, because these men
who are doing this walking are spending
this time unnecessarily, putting their
labor against that of horses and mules.
! Man is supposed to be an intelligent being
and able to direct the efforts Of his work
stock, but when he chooses to reduce the
work on the farm to a matter Of mere
muscular effort and to put his own mus
cles against those OF the mule he comes
perilously near putting himself in the
same class with the mule as worker on
the farm. The Western farmer measures
his efficiency largely by the number OF
horses or the amount of horse power he
can control and direct. We OF the South
remain content TO direct the labor Of only
one horse and to so direct this labor that
we must do almost an equal amount with
the horse.
Then after our crops are planted we tend
them largely with plows which necessitate
our going four or five times to each row
where we should go only once. Is not this
an obvious waste of hard labor and Of val
liable time? Can we expect to make our
labor profitable so long as we do only one
fourth as much in day as we might? 1t
takes man with turn plow or single
sweep, four times as long to work an acre
of corn as it taxes the man with the two
horse cultivator. This is virtual waste
out of this mans life Of this misused time.
Is it any wonder that SO many men work
hard all their lives to accomplish so little?
Then in the fall when our crop is made,
if it is corn crop, we pull the fodder off
of it, spending here twice as much labor as
would be required to save food Of an equal
value if the corn were cut up and shocked.
Is it any wonder that some farmers do not
find live stock feeding profitable when
they depend upon upon food which has
cost them twice what was nessassary?
The labor put into the production Of any
commodity is part Of the cost OF that
would seem, but one which thousands Of
farmers evidently forget every day Of
their lives. We must learn to eoonomize in
the expenditure Of time and labor as well
as in the expenditure of money. And it Is
the height of folly to devote twice as mnch
labor to the production Of crop as is
Necessary and then to expect prices high
enough to give us profit on this labor.
III
The same thing is true of labor in the
farm home. In thousands of homes the
women and children have spent time
enough carrying water from distant
spring or drawing it out of well by sheer
muscular effort to have paid a half-dozen
times for the installation Of good pump
or for the digging of a well or cistern near
| by. The woman who spends four hours
each week doing washing by hand that
could be doue in two hours with washing
machine wastes enough labor in one year
| to more than pay for machine that will
last fen years. Is it any wonder that the
| women on our farms are over-worked and
are yet unable to keep the farm home as
it should be kept, or to find time for the
! recreation and self-culture to which every
woman is entitled?
10 WOrk--tO reform honest, healthful ana
productive labor-is the highest privilege
which any of US enjoy; but to do work
which is unnecessary and unfruitful and
to be compelled to do such work day after
day and year after year, is doom which
| Dante might well have added to the hor-
rors of his Inferno. II we appreciated the
! value of the time which is ours and the
| dignity of labor which accomplishes the
end which it seeks in other words, if we
appreciated the difference between in.
| telligent and unintelligent labor, we would
bend every effort to the changing of these
conditions and to the directing of our
efforts along more rational and more pro-
| ductive lines.