It would cost three hundred million dollars more to harvest the world's
wheat by hand, if it were possible, than it costs now by the aid of the
harvester and reaper. [Footnote: H. N. Casson, "Romance of the Reaper," p.
178.]
Some years ago in a trial made in Germany in the presence of the Emperor
and his ministers, it was shown that a Mississippi Valley harvester driven
by one man could do more in one day than forty Polish women with old-
fashioned sickles. [Footnote: H. N. Casson, "Romance of the Reaper," pp.
134, 135.]
The precursor of the harvester saw grandmothers and mothers in the fields
working day and night to cut and gather the harvest, but he could not now
(except among the new immigrant farmers) see that spectacle. I cannot
recall that, until I met that old-world population coming over the
mountains as I made my first journey east out of that valley, over twenty
years ago, I ever saw a woman at work in the fields.
The gallantry of that primitive pioneer life kept her in the cabin, which
was the castle, and, while her labor was doubtless not less than her
husband's, it had the sanctity of its seclusion and its maternal
ministries to life.
Pages:
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498