an alarmist. While the masses in this land are better conditioned than those of any other, it is, of course, because the country is newer; its virgin forests, lands, and mines still less exhausted, more cheaply developed; and the people more enterprising, intelligent, and thrifty through these advantages and their freedom, which is not yet limited by want of space. All history agrees in the statement that, as countries grow older, the masses become more fettered, farms and their products less remunerative, and the net earnings of labor reduced. Thus skilled labor in the iron rolling mills of Massachusetts, by the last United States census, averaged $2.70 per day; while in Ohio, where living expenses are less, the average was $3.87, and in newer States as high as $4.62, for the same work.*

While all are interested in the success of the farmer, artisan, and other laborers, and the growth of their occupations and industries, still, as the love of self and family exceeds that of country, the tendency of the times is to hamper and to sap them. The wrongfully increased cost of family necessities through subsidies and combinations, competition in labor from unrestricted immigration, speculative booms in houses and rents, and the general disposition to reduce wages regardless of the profit resulting from the work, are among the leading causes of this tendency. Manufacturers and all business and professional men can and do increase their prices to accord with increased expenses, but the balance of labor must pay these increased prices, and take for their own products what they can get; yet they have no voice in fixing the prices of their purchases.

These are but a few of the matters which are candidly and freely discussed and ventilated in this work, asser

Gen. Lieb.

tions on all material points being proved by statistics. Without malice, envy, or ambition, what concerns those who truly earn their bread by the sweat of their brows shall be published herein to them reliably, and without party coloring, sectional enmity, or other influence than the author's personal interest in the cause, which is the sole object of its issue.

Goldsmith's oft-quoted lines,

"Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey,

Where wealth accumulates and men decay,"

ring often in the ears of those who have their country's happiness and perpetuity at heart. To such as have passed their lives upon farms, or have been brought into close relations with the laboring classes, the reference in the foregoing lines to "ills" and "decay" would be construed as meaning them, in contrast to the country's numerous millionaires.

Besides the past and present farm life of the author, and his savings-bank and other business associations with the working people of the Northeastern, Central, and Western parts of the United States, his observation of their condition extends throughout this country, Europe, and her various outside possessions.

Any word or information that awakens and elevates the working people, and causes an effort to advance their interests, rights, and benefits, will also make them better citizens, better prepared to meet future issues intelligently, and to secure a competence for their families and old age. Impressed with this idea, and feeling that no monument or renown would make debility or old age more satisfied and content than a knowledge that a sacrificing duty was done in trying to benefit one's own class and occupation, this book is submitted to an indulgent public.

16

AGRICULTURE.

IN agriculture, or farming, is included the bulk of the balance of labor not covered by the building and mechanical trades, and the employments growing out of and connected with them.

Good farming is dependent on good machinery, including tools, and on good buildings. Doubtless, in its infancy, neither was used, even the hoe and hut being unknown. Among the first records of producing from the soil, to be found in any detail, is the raising of corn in Chaldea and Egypt. Sowing seed in the valley of the Nile, and turning on the swine to tread it into the soil, was one of the methods in use, and every process of planting and harvesting was of the simplest. As population grew more dense, and other climates and soils were occupied, better processes were developed, and more varied were the productions. Animal power and rude tools were gradually brought into use, and about 1,000 years before Christ "a plow with a beam, share, and handles" is mentioned. Then agriculture is spoken of as being in a flourishing condition, and artificial drainage was resorted to. Grecian farming in the days of its prosperity attained, in some districts, a creditable advancement, and the implements in use were, in principle, similar to many of modern construction. Horses, cattle,

swine, sheep, and poultry were bred and continually improved by importations from other countries. Manuring of the fields was practiced; ground was often plowed three times before seeding; and sub-soiling and other mixings of soils were in some cases employed. A great variety of fruit was successfully cultivated, and good farming was a source of pride to the people. The Romans considered it, as Washington did, the most honorable and useful occupation. Each Roman citizen was allotted a piece of land of from five to fifty acres by the Government, and in after times, when annexations were made, up to five hundred acres were allotted. The land was generally closely and carefully cultivated, and the most distinguished citizens considered it their greatest compliment to be called good farmers. The Roman Senate had twenty-eight books, written by a Carthagenian farmer, translated for the use of the people. The general sentiment among the more intelligent was to hold small farms and till them well; to protect their fields from winds and storms, and to defer building or incurring avoidable expense until fully able. There were evidently observing wiseacres in those days, and one gives his opinion of a good milch cow in the following quaint manner: "A tall make; long; with very large belly; very broad head; eyes black and open; horns graceful, smooth, and black; ears hairy; jaws straight; dew-lap and tail very large; hoofs and legs moderate." He, however, spoils confidence in his observations by adding that, "After oxen get through plowing, and come home heated and tired, they must have a little wine poured down their throats, and, after being fed a little, be led out to drink; and if they will not drink, the boy must whistle to make them." While Roman agriculture was in advance of that of Greece, and

exceedingly prosperous, it is a sad admonition to record that, when wealth and power became so great in the empire, farming declined, and was carried on principally by bondsmen. Pliny speaks of plowing ground, in that portion of Africa belonging to the Romans, "with a wretched ass and an old woman" for a team. Very little mechanical power was used, the water-wheel being unknown until over a hundred years after the Christian era, and it being a thousand years more before the power of wind was utilized. With the depression and neglect of agriculture came the downfall of the country, and the farming, being done by slaves, permitted no recuperation. The invaders of the country from the East and North established a new system of cultivation, and drainage and irrigation were instituted.

Thus were the resources of a part of Spain, then under Roman rule, developed to the extent of producing a tax of $30,000,000 annually. It seems no new thing to tax the farmers to the utmost, and kill the layer of the golden egg. Even before large portions of Europe had seen the light of civilization, important manufacturing and commercial towns naturally grew up as a sure result of successful agriculture.

Holland, Belgium, and Britain were slow to improve agriculture, but made sure progress, as those countries show to-day. In the sixteenth century but few vegetables, and no Indian corn, was grown in England, the people chiefly subsisting on barley bread. The tenantry led the lives of slaves, without the assurance of support in sickness and old age which slaves command, and the monks and crusaders were the only friends the farmers found. Sir Anthony Fitzherbert, who is said to have been the first writer on English agriculture, notes in his