CHAPTER V.

MOWING WITH SCYTHES.

The next day George again visited the fields to see the next step in the process of making hay. First he found Tom, with a fork, turning over the grass which he had mowed the day before. Then he went to the other field, where he saw the same work being done by a machine. The mower had left the grass in heaps so that the sun could reach only the surface. It is necessary that hay should be thoroughly dried as quickly as possible. Across the field and back again went the hay tedder, its forks picking up the grass and tossing it in every direction. One horse only was needed, and the driver was a boy.

The third day George was again in the field. Once more the grass was turned. Then in the late afternoon it was prepared for the barn. Tom could only use the small hand rake, for his work was close to the fence; he was simply cleaning up what the machines had failed to reach. But in the fieldwhere George had watched the mower and the tedder, machinery and horse power were again in use. A horse went back and forth, drawing a horse rake behind him. Now and then, at regular intervals, up came the rake, a pile of hay was left, and on went the horse. Then a hay sweep passed along at right angles to the rake and soon the hay was in piles. As the field was very smooth and free from stones, a hay loader was used to place the hay upon the wagon. A boy drove the horses, two men laid the load, and soon the wagon was started for the barn. The old-fashioned, slow, hard work of lifting the hay by the forkful into the barn was no longer necessary. Hay forks, run by horse power, grappled the hay, and lifted the load. Conveyers carried the hay to the right point and dropped it in the mow.

Such was the work done during the first three days that George spent on the farm. He saw the old-fashioned hand work and the modern use of labor-saving machinery. Then he studied his books. In them he found that the hand labor of cutting, drying, and housing the hay used to cost about five dollars a ton, and that now, with the best of modern machines, it need cost not more than one dollar a ton. This machinery is of great value to the farmer and also to those who buy the hay; for the farmer can sell his hay at a lower price, since it costs him less to make it.

This was the last of the haying. For several weeks George watched the hoes and the harrows, as they kept the gardens and fields in good condition. Then came harvest-time. Potatoes were first in George's thoughts, and when he learned that they were to be dug on the morrow he was thoroughly aroused. But he met with a sore disappointment. The potatoes were not dug by machinery. The common hoe or the specially shaped potato hoe were the onlytools. Then the back-aching work of picking up potatoes added to his disgust, and he declared that he never would raise many potatoes. He learned that plows sometimes help the hoes, but that potato-digging machines have never come into general use, though good ones have been invented.

At last grain harvest-time came. This was the time to which George had long looked forward. Now he could see the wheat cut and threshed. This he was sure was the best work of the farmer. But when he saw Tom take the short, crooked sickle, cut some grain with that, gather it in his arms, and tie a cord around it, he could scarcely control himself. "Is that the way grain is harvested?" he said. Then when he saw the grain laid on the barn floor and struck rapidly by flails in the hands of two men, he declared, "If that is what the farmer has to do to get a little grain, then I do not want to be a farmer."

"Well," said Mr. Miller, "that is just what all farmers had to do until within fifty years."

A REAPER AND BINDER.

But George soon saw a different method. This first hand-work had been merely to harvest a small amount of early grain; a few days later the machines were brought out. Now George was happy. At last he saw a reaping machine and a combined reaper and binder. This interested him the most. He watched the machine as the horses drew it alongthe edge of the standing grain. He saw the grain cut and laid upon a platform, carried up into the machine, taken by two arms called packers, gathered by them into bundles, bound by cords and thrown to the ground. What more could be asked of any machine?

And yet there is a new type of harvester that has been used in San Joaquin valley, California. It cuts a swarth fifty-two feet in width. It not only cuts the grain but it threshes it as well. It makes the sacks and fills them as it travels over the field. It is said to cut an area of a hundred acres a day, and at the same time thresh the grain and fill fifteen hundred sacks.

THE McCORMICK REAPER.

Later in the autumn came the thresher. That belonging to Farmer Miller was run by horse power. Two horses stood upon a platform, constantly stepping forward but not moving from their position. Instead the platform moved backward and this turned the machinery. The men placed the grain stalks in the hopper and the threshed grain came out of the machine, flowing into sacks, which when filled were tied by the men and set aside ready for the market.

The reaper and the thresher seemed to George the greatest of inventions. He obtained a book on inventions, and for many days he was buried in it. He read of the Englishman,Henry Ogle, whose reaper, made in 1822, aroused the anger of the working people, who threatened to kill the manufacturers if they continued to make the machines; of Patrick Bell's invention, which, though successful, was forgotten for twenty or thirty years; of Cyrus H. McCormick, the American, whose reaper first obtained a lasting success.

Most of all he was interested in the account of the first trial of reapers in England, at the time of the world's fair in 1851. What a joke it was for the LondonTimesto poke fun at the McCormick machine, as it was exhibited in the Crystal Palace! How the great newspaper did wish that it had kept quiet when a few days later it was compelled to report the complete success of the ridiculed reaper!

The trial took place in Essex, about forty-five miles from London. Two hundred farmers were present, ready to laugh at failure or to accept any successful machine. The wheat was not ripe; the crop was heavy; and the day was rainy. The Hussey reaper was first tried but was soon clogged by the green, wet grain. The judges proposed to discontinue the trial, as the conditions were so unfavorable. But the agent of the McCormick reaper protested. His machine would work under any conditions; he wished that the gentlemen who had taken the pains to come to the trial should have a chance to see the McCormick. Accordingly it was brought forward and, in spite of everything, it went steadily forward, cutting all before it. Success was evident, and the English farmers gave three hearty cheers for the American reaping-machine.

Another trial, at which the reaper was timed, showed that it could cut twenty acres a day with ease. Even the laboring men realized that the machine would come at once into use; one, who was among the interested spectators, took the sickle,which he happened to have with him, and broke it in two across his knee; he said that he would no longer need that.

Four years later a trial took place in France also. Here three American, two English, and two French machines were tested. McCormick's reaper easily came out ahead, with the other American machines close behind. At the same time four threshing machines were tested. Six men with their flails, working as hard as they could, obtained fifty-four quarts of wheat in half an hour; the American thresher gave out six hundred and seventy-three quarts in the same time!

THRESHING WITH FLAIL.

We have spent much time on farming machinery. We must now leave George to a further study of farm life and farm work. So far he has only examined tools and machinery. He has learned from experience, however, that a modern farmer has much more than this to learn, and much work to do that cannot be done by machinery. He realizes that much study is needed to make a successful farmer. He finds that nearly every State in the Union has one or more agricultural colleges, and that the United States does its share in giving aid and information to farmers. He still desires to be a farmer, but he is glad that it is a modern farmer that he must be. He goes back to school, eager to prepare himself to enter the best agricultural college that he can find, in order that he may be ready for intelligent farming as soon as opportunity comes.

SOIL.

A littleboat was sailing along the north shore of Massachusetts bay. It was a shallop belonging to the fishing hamlet of Cape Ann. In it were Gov. Roger Conant and a few of his friends. After a sail of a dozen miles the boat was turned to the westward and entered a harbor. On it went until it reached a point of land which separated two little rivers. Upon this peninsula, which the Indians called Naumkeag, Conant landed. He walked across from one stream to the other; he carefully examined the trees, the weeds, the grass, and the remains of an Indian cornfield. Then he sailed back to the cape.

COLONISTS IN A SHALLOP.

A few weeks later Governor Conant and fourteen companions moved from Cape Ann to Naumkeag, now Salem. For three years the hamlet on the cape had been struggling for life. The colonists had at last become disheartened and had abandoned the settlement. But what better fortune could they expect at Naumkeag? Conant's study of the little peninsula had taught him that here was a fertile soil from which he could raise food enough for the colonists. CapeAnn had not proved fertile. It was a "stern and rock-bound coast." The entire cape seemed to be one vast ledge of granite rock, and only here and there could grain and vegetables be grown.

The settlement of Salem was four years earlier than that of Boston, and but six years after the Pilgrims arrived in Plymouth. Thus early in the history of the colonies was it found necessary to seek fertile soils for settlements. As these grew and the number of the colonists increased, the need of more land and better soil became apparent. Ten years after Conant went to Naumkeag, the population of three entire towns near Boston moved, through woods, over hills and valleys, and across streams, to the fertile valley of the Connecticut River. Farms spread out in every direction until, before the middle of the eighteenth century, nearly all of southern New England was dotted with them.

The French and Indian War came, and at its close the valley of the Ohio River was placed in the hands of the English. Then followed the American Revolution, and the Northwest Territory became a part of the United States. The New England farmers had become crowded by this time, and many were eager for more land. A new migration followed. Farmers from New England, New York, and Pennsylvania began to journey westward and to settle the Northwest Territory. Ohio soon had sufficient population to be made a State. Indiana and Illinois followed, then Michigan and Wisconsin. Meanwhile the United States purchased the great province of Louisiana, and Iowa, Minnesota, and Nebraska were settled by the Eastern farmers and others who had come across the ocean from Europe.

Never in the history of the world had there been such a rapid settlement of new lands. It has continued even up tothe present time. A few years ago the new territory of Oklahoma was opened to farmers, and its growth has been remarkable.

The principal reason for this rapid settlement of Western land may be found in the excellent character of the soil. For ages it had lain uncultivated, waiting for the coming of the white man. Unlike the rocky portions of New England, the ground seldom contains a large stone. Unlike the hills and valleys of the coast States, the interior territory is prairie land, level as far as the eye can see. Here the gang plows can be run; here the mowing machines and the mammoth harvesters can be used to great advantage.

Thus grew the northern part of the United States. In the South the westward movement was not so rapid. The conditions of agriculture were different. The climate of South Carolina was unlike that of Massachusetts; the cold of New York was unknown in Georgia. In New England small farms were the rule; on these the work was done by the owner, with the aid of his sons or perhaps a hired man or two. In Virginia large plantations were common; here the proprietor lived at his ease and the land was cultivated by slaves. In Connecticut the crops raised were used for the most part by the farmer's family or sold in the immediate neighborhood. In North Carolina the products of the plantations were exported in great quantities.

In time, however, these Southern people became dissatisfied with their early territory, as their Northern brothers had been, and gradually new States were formed to the westward. Kentucky and Tennessee were followed by Louisiana; Alabama and Mississippi were formed on one side of the great river, but a few years before Missouri and Arkansas were on the other. State after State was admitted to the Union assoon as a sufficient number of people had flocked into them, and the number of Territories was steadily diminishing.

At the farther end of the continent, the Oregon country, saved to us by the heroism of Dr. Marcus Whitman, added a large territory of extremely fertile soil. South of Oregon the great State of California was added to the Union, as a result of Marshall's discovery of gold at Sutter's Fort. Yet California to-day is a State for the farmer as well as the miner. Thus finally, the Atlantic coast, the region of the Great Lakes, the Ohio valley, the Gulf States, the valley of the "Father of Waters," and the Pacific slope—in fact, almost all sections of the United States—were well peopled by farmers, drawing from the rich virgin soil immense crops of food, more than sufficient for our own people.

But we were not satisfied. In the very heart of the country, between Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas on the east, and California, Oregon, and Washington on the west, lay a great region which had no attractions for the farmer. Let him properly plow and cultivate the soil, let him add to it soil-food or fertilizers as much as he pleases, let the spring and the summer come, and let the hot sun add its part to change the seed into growing grain—in spite of all the farmer's efforts no crop could be obtained. The grain dried up almost as soon as planted. There was no water. For month after month no rain fell upon this region. It was called the "Great American Desert."

The first attempt to make this desert soil yield a suitable return for the labor of the farmer was made at Salt Lake City. Fifty years ago a band of earnest men braved cold and famine, and the even more deadly Indians, crossed the great region west of the Mississippi River, and made a settlement in the very midst of the desert country. To-day thedesert of Utah blooms like a garden; the soil is fertile and yields large returns to the industrious inhabitants. What has made the change? Nothing but water.

AN IRRIGATING TRENCH.

If the heavens refuse to send rain to moisten the parched ground, cannot the needed water be obtained in some other way? The pioneer settlers of Salt Lake led the way in teaching mankind that the ground may be irrigated by human means. Water may be carried to the fields where, flowing along the surface of the ground, it soaks in until it reaches the roots of the crops. The water may be pumped out of the ground or it may be brought from the mountains in trenches or pipes. This method of helping nature by providing water where rain is scarce is called irrigation.

In the same way many other sections of the great West have been reclaimed. Southern California, formerly fit only for the raising of vast herds of cattle, is now the great orchard of the country. Large portions of New Mexico and Arizona now add to the general stock of food. Irrigation bids fair to be of vast benefit to the country as, little by little, barren lands are rendered fertile.

At present the principal grain region of our country is the great Northwest, the twelve States west of Pennsylvania. The principal grain is corn, and two-thirds of the entire crop of this country is grown in the seven States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri. The banner corn State is Iowa.

The wheat crop is more valuable to the world than the corn. The United States raises one-quarter of all the wheat grown in the world, and the great Northwest produces two-thirds of that. Wheat can be profitably raised in a cooler climate than is suitable for corn; therefore the five Northern States Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North and South Dakota add their quota to the wheat grown in the seven great corn States. Minnesota leads in the production of wheat. Not all the wheat comes from this region, however, for two Pacific States, California and Oregon, produce one-eighth of the entire crop of our country, and Pennsylvania gives a large share.

A RICE FIELD.

Iowa leads in the production of oats as well as of corn; more than two-thirds of the oat crop comes from the Northwest.New York and Pennsylvania add their quota, about one-eighth of the total crop. The Northwest thus provides two-thirds of the grain, on much less than one-half of the cultivated land of the United States.

Though grain is the great agricultural product, it is not the only crop that we raise in large quantities. Ten of the Southern States furnish each year more than sixty thousand tons of rice, a large portion of which comes from Louisiana and South Carolina.

The United States is just beginning to take rank as a sugar-producing country. We now raise about one-eighth of the sugar that we use each year. At present most of the sugar comes from sugar cane, which is grown mainly in Louisiana; but the central States and California have recently begun the manufacture of sugar from beets, and beet-growing is becoming an important industry. The recent annexation of islands in the West Indies and the Pacific Ocean greatly increases our sugar production.

Two other crops which are obtained from the soil must not be forgotten, although they are neither of them foods. The Gulf States furnish nine-elevenths of all the cotton raised in the world, and the States north of them produce a large portion of the world's tobacco. Kentucky leads in the production of the latter staple, raising each year nearly one-half of the tobacco grown in the United States.

Grain, cotton, tobacco, rice, and sugar are the main products of the soil in the United States. Each of these is produced in its own special region, depending upon the character of the soil and the climate. The value of our agricultural exports is rapidly increasing, and the world is looking more and more to the United States to furnish a large part of the food necessary for all mankind.

A MODERN DINNER.

George Baxterand his wife returned to New York, after a winter spent in California just a week before Mrs. Baxter's sister and her husband were preparing to start for a second summer in Europe. A third sister, Alice Smith, decided to give the travelers a small dinner, to which only the family should be invited.

A DINNER PARTY.

When the evening arrived, eleven members of the Atwood family gathered about the table in Mr. Smith's capacious dining room, the seat of honor being given to the mother, Mrs. Atwood. Besides the three married couples, Frank and Alice Smith, Albert and Mary Fremont, and George and Lucy Baxter, there were the four unmarried children. James, the oldest son, was a banker in the city; Walter, next younger than Lucy, was a student fitting for Columbia University; Fred and Mabel were still classed as school children.

After the trim waiter had brought on the soup, the moment's quiet was broken by George Baxter, who said to the hostess: "How good to get back to New York once more, if only to get a soup that one can eat without burning the mouth with the sharp condiments. You have no seasoning at all in the soup, have you, Alice?"

"Oh, yes," replied the hostess," it is a very simple soup, but there is the usual pepper and salt. What have you been in the habit of having?"

"I am sure that I could tell what we did not have in some of our Mexican soups much easier than what we did have. I should think that there must have been both kinds of pepper, ginger, garlic, mustard, horseradish, Worcestershire sauce, and everything else. I cannot understand why people living in the tropics want to season their food with such hot stuff."

"What do you mean by two kinds of pepper, brother George?" asked Mabel.

"Cayenne pepper and black pepper," was the reply.

"Oh, yes, I know!" said Fred. "Cayenne pepper comes from Cayenne in French Guiana. But where do we get black pepper?"

"Nearly all of it comes from Sumatra," said Mary. "Do you know where Sumatra is, Mabel?"

"Sumatra is one of the large islands south and southeast of Asia, which are called the East Indies," replied the schoolgirl.

The conversation had now become general, and Mr. Smith called attention to the distance that these condiments travel in reaching us.

"Sumatra is almost exactly on the opposite side of the earth from us," said he. "Fred, how would the black pepper be brought to New York from Sumatra?"

"Across the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea, through the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea, I suppose. But I do not know whether it would then come straight across the Atlantic Ocean, or first go to England."

"Usually," said Mr. Smith," it would go to England first."

"Alice," broke in Mabel," what else is in the soup beside pepper? Oh, I know, salt. Is salt also brought half-way round the world?"

"I know where salt comes from," said Fred;" up State. It is dug out of the ground near Syracuse."

"That is right, Fred," said James. "But New York State does not supply all the salt used in this country. For years many ships and barks have come yearly into Gloucester harbor from Sicily, bringing salt for the fishing-schooners. Steamers even are being used to bring salt from the Mediterranean Sea, in order that the Gloucester fishermen may send salt fish all over our country."

"We must not forget," said Mrs. Smith, "that there is rice in our soup also. That comes from South Carolina."

Just then the plates were removed and the fish was brought on.

"This is a rarity," said the hostess. "Can you tell us what it is, James?"

"I think so. It is halibut, is it not?"

"Why do you call it a rarity?" asked Mary.

"This halibut came from the Grand Banks," said Mrs. Smith. "I do not understand how they get it here so fresh."

James, who seemed to be quite familiar with the Gloucester fisheries, said: "The fishermen brought their load of halibut to the Gloucester wharves last night and immediately loaded it upon the Boston steamer. Three o'clock in the morningwas its time for sailing, and at six it was being unloaded in Boston. The six-hour trains brought some of it to New York in time for our dinner."

LOADING FISH AT GLOUCESTER.

"Steamers and railroad trains seem necessary for our dinner, do they not?" said Albert. "But this fish sauce contains only articles from nearer home, I am sure."

"Do not be too certain of that," said Mr. Smith. "Alice, what is there in this sauce?"

"First, there are eggs."

"Those came from our Long Island farm, of course," said her husband.

"Then there is olive oil."

"That comes from Italy," said Mr. Smith. "That is not a home product. The olives that you are eating are, of course, from Italy also."

"I doubt that," said George. "I was just about to remark that these olives had come from California. I can easily detect the taste."

"Yes, "the hostess added. "These olives I bought just to see if George and Lucy would notice that they were not our usual queen olives. They are said to have come from Pomona."

"That is a great olive center," said George.

"What else is there in the sauce, Alice?" asked her husband.

"Pepper and salt, vinegar——"

"Cider vinegar, I suppose," broke in Mrs. Baxter. "How much nicer apple vinegar is than grape vinegar! Most of the vinegar that we had in California was made from wine. That State is becoming a great grape-producing region. But do you know, Frank, where the apples were grown?"

"No," said Mr. Smith, "but probably they were raised either in Vermont or New Hampshire. Last year the New York apple orchards gave but a poor yield, while those of New England did much better. Probably this season will prove an off year for Vermont apples, but we shall have all that we can use in our own State."

"A little lemon ends the list," said the hostess.

"Lemons from Sicily, I suppose," remarked Mr. Baxter. "Have you tried the California lemons yet?"

"Yes," said Mr. Smith. "We can sometimes get very fine lemons from California, but not always. If the growers of lemons were more particular about the quality of the fruit that they send out, there would be a better trade in California lemons."

While this conversation was going on, the fish was removed and a roast of beef was placed on the table, and with it the vegetables. The different members of the family had become quite interested in the discussion by this time, and it was continued as a matter of course.

"This is a good piece of beef," remarked James Atwood. "What are we going to do for meat when the natural increase in the amount of land devoted to cultivation uses up all the grazing regions?"

"You need not fret about that," said Mr. Baxter; "that will not come in your day. You ought to take a trip through Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, through Wyoming and Montana, or other sections of the Rocky Mountain region, and you would not fear for our cattle-raising interests."

"Here, again, the railroads are important," said Mr. Fremont. "What numbers of long freight trains daily come east, loaded with cattle for New York and Boston, and even for Great Britain and the Continent. The European consumption of our cattle is of great and rapidly growing importance."

A CATTLE TRAIN.

"These new potatoes came from the Bermudas," remarked the host.

"And the peas from Maryland," added the hostess. "Do you not think that these are remarkably fresh after having been brought so far?"

"How about the lettuce?" asked James. "That must have come from some greenhouse."

"Without doubt, though I did not inquire," replied Mrs. Smith.

Not willing to leave anything out of the conversation, Mabel here inquired about the macaroni and tomatoes.

"The macaroni comes from Italy," replied her sister Mary. "Much of it is shipped from Genoa, the city which claims to have been the birthplace of Columbus. You wouldfind it interesting, Mabel, to read about the production and preparation of macaroni."

"The tomatoes were canned on our farm last autumn," said Mrs. Smith. "We think them much superior to any that we can buy."

After this the conversation turned upon the bread. There were two kinds, white and brown. One of the ladies remarked that she never ate white bread; bread from whole wheat flour was so much more wholesome. Another said that graham bread was good enough for her. They talked about the white flour, made in Minneapolis, from Dakota wheat. They spoke of the Indian meal made from corn grown in Iowa. They wondered why so little rye was used in this country, since it is the staple grain in Russia. They then inquired concerning the other substances used in making the two kinds of bread.

"Where does the butter come from?" asked Mrs. Fremont.

"This particular box is marked from Delaware County, New York," replied the hostess. "Most of the creameries that send butter to New York City are located at some distance from the railroads. The farms nearer the railroads send all their milk to the city. But the farmers that are too remote profitably to send in the milk make the cream into butter and cheese. They then feed the buttermilk to the pigs."

"That is a new thought to me," said James. "So it seems that some products are made only where there are no railroads."

"Or where there is no great city within a few hundred miles," added Walter.

"I suppose there is molasses in this brown bread," said Lucy Baxter.

"Molasses comes from Porto Rico," said Mabel, who was studying the West Indies just at this time in her geography lessons at school.

"Some of it," said her oldest sister. "But most of the sugar comes from Cuba."

"But not all," said James. "This sugar has been traveling for nearly two weeks to reach New York. First a sea voyage of more than two thousand miles, and then a railroad journey of more than three thousand miles, and yet the section where it grew is a part of the United States."

"It must have come from Honolulu then," said Walter. "I wonder whether the Sandwich Islands, being now a part of the United States, will interfere with the raising of sugar cane in our Southern States?"

"Very little probably, but now that the United States possesses Hawaii and Porto Rico, it will scarcely be necessary for us to import any sugar and molasses," said Fred.

When the dessert and fruit were brought on, new subjects for conversation were found.

"What do you call this pudding, Alice?" asked her husband.

"It is a peach-tapioca pudding," was the reply. "The peaches are from Delaware; canned, of course."

"Here, again, the West Indies are represented," said James; "the tapioca came from Hayti."

"And the East Indies also," added Walter, "for I taste nutmeg, which comes from the Molucca Islands. These islands furnish such an amount of spice that they are commonly called the Spice Islands."

The discussion of foods continued throughout the dinner. The oranges, almost the last of the season, had been brought from California. Florida oranges were scarce that year. Thebananas were from Mexico and almost a luxury. The war with Spain had destroyed trade with Cuba, from which island the great bulk of bananas had usually come.

Among the nuts were almonds that had been imported from Italy, filberts that had been sent across the ocean from England, and walnuts that had come from California. Finally the coffee was from the island of Java.

DRYING COFFEE IN JAVA.

Before the dinner party broke up, Mr. Smith reviewed the facts which had been learned in the conversation. He especially called attention to the small number of articles that are not profitably raised in the United States.

"We should miss our coffee very much," he said, "if our country were blockaded at any time. The loss of the banana would be the loss of a luxury. Had we no macaroni or tapioca we should still have enough to eat. Perhaps our taste would become more natural were we deprived of pepper.No other of the foods on this table should we be entirely deprived of, even were we separated wholly from the rest of the world. California could furnish us with olives, lemons, and almonds, as well as Italy does. We need not go to England for filberts, and even if we had not of late obtained new colonies, we could produce in time all the sugar we needed to supply the entire country. No other nation in the world is so well prepared to furnish its own food."

ELI WHITNEY.

A QUILTING BEE IN THE OLDEN TIME.

COLONIAL CONDITIONS.

Youall know that the United States of America was formed out of thirteen English colonies scattered along the Atlantic coast. Virginia was the first of these colonies to be founded, dating from 1607. Massachusetts was settled in 1620, New York in 1623, and so on until the last of the thirteen, Georgia, was established in 1733. From the time of these settlements until the Declaration of Independence in 1776, these colonies were subject to Great Britain and under her rule and control. The independence of these American colonies was a great loss to the British government, but it created a new nation of the same race which, together with the mother country, to-day holds the destiny of the world in its hands.

Great Britain for centuries has been largely a manufacturing country. It was the policy of the British government to control so far as possible manufactures and commerce for all her provinces and colonies. Hence during our colonial period the home government took every possible measure to prevent the introduction of manufactures into the colonies. We were dependent upon the mother country for cotton and woolen goods, cutlery, iron ware, and, indeed, almost everything that could be profitably manufactured in England and shipped to this country. Even after we had secured outindependence, the strictest care was taken by the officials of England that drawings and models of machinery should not be brought to America.

As late as 1816 an American manufacturer of cotton cloth visited England. Although he carried letters of introduction which caused him to be treated with great courtesy and attention, he was refused permission to enter any of the cotton mills. The manufacturers suspected his purpose, which was to learn the construction of the "double speeder." Nevertheless he persisted, and one day, without permission and in spite of the sign "Positively no Admittance," he entered the carding-room, accompanied by a skilled mechanic. They proceeded as rapidly as possible to examine the machine, which was in full operation, but were soon ordered out by the overseer. They had, however, seen enough of its construction to enable them to make one.

After their return to this country they made a machine and set it up in the gentleman's cotton mill in the State of New York. The news of its successful operation reached England and aroused a jealous feeling among manufacturers. In their anger they planned a wicked scheme to destroy the life of the American manufacturer. A box containing an "infernal machine" was sent as freight on a packet ship bound for New York. Fortunately, when the crew was discharging the cargo, the box slipped from the car hook and fell with a crash upon the wharf. This caused it to explode, but without injury to any one.

In colonial times the condition of society was such as to make it almost impossible for the people to engage to any great extent in manufactures. The country was new and the principal business must be agriculture. After comfortable shelter for the families had been provided, every exertionmust be put forth to secure food. Cloth could only be obtained from the mother country. Cotton and linen cloth were imported for shirts and sheets, woolen goods for clothing, a few silks for wedding dresses now and then, and leather for the shoes of all the people.

TAILOR AND COBBLER.

In the early times the tailor, with his goose and his shears, plied his trade from house to house, staying with each family long enough to make up the clothes necessary for the season. In like manner the shoemaker traveled about the country, with his kit upon his back, stopping with each household to make the shoes needed for the father, mother, and children.

These were the pioneer days, but, before we became a nation, the houses of the people had greatly improved in style of architecture and in comfort. Considerable wealth had been secured by many, and but little poverty was found anywhere. The mechanic arts were beginning to improve, and manufacturing, after a long and tedious waiting, was gradually making progress. At an early date sawmills had been established upon the streams, using the water as motive power. Gristmills had sprung up for grinding the grain raised by every farmer. The spinning wheel and the hand loom had found their place slowly but steadily in all parts of the country.

It is difficult to comprehend the great differences between the industries of those early days and the methods of doingbusiness among us to-day. Now almost everything seems to be done by machinery, and the division of labor has been carried to such an extent that each laborer seems only an assistant to a machine. "You press the button, the machine does the rest."

FLAX WHEEL.

In the early days of our country, it was customary for the different members of a family to do almost everything that the necessities or comfort of the household required. Everywhere the farmer raised sheep, sheared them, carded the wool, spun it and wove it, all this being done upon the home farm. A well-to-do farmer would produce all the woolen cloth needed for clothing for himself and his family.

The sheep grazed upon the hills and their wool was clipped in the spring of the year. This wool was scoured, carded, spun by the family in the farmhouse, and then woven into cloth for the winter's wear. All this was done within the walls of the house, and the cloth was made up into clothing for the different members of the family by the itinerant tailor. What a contrast from the present system, which raises wool upon our Western hills and prairies, makes it into cloth in the large factories, and fashions it into trousers, vests, and coats in the great wholesale clothing establishments.

In some sections of the country the farmers raised flax, and from it made the purest white linen cloth. The writer of this chapter has in his possession a beautiful piece of white linen, woven upon the farm where he was born, from thread which was spun from flax raised upon the same farm. The flax wheel and the loom were also made by the father of the family.

If you could look into that old kitchen what a sight you would see! How quaint it would appear to each one of you! The kitchen makes an ell to the main house. This ell was an old house, built more than a century and a half ago, and moved up to the new house for a kitchen. In one corner stands the large spinning wheel; near it is the smaller flax wheel; in another corner stands the great wooden loom with its huge beam for the warp and its shuttle which must be thrown back and forth by hand. No carpet, not even an oil-cloth, is upon the floor, which is covered with pure white sand.

AN OLD-FASHIONED LOOM.

It would seem very strange to us if we were obliged to live surrounded by these primitive conditions. How much stranger would it appear to those who lived at that day if they could witness the improvements of our time!

THE COTTON GIN.

Inthe quiet times that followed the French and Indian War, two years after the Treaty of 1763, Eli Whitney was born in Worcester County in Massachusetts. During the Revolutionary War he was busy making nails by hand, the only way in which nails were made in those days. He earned money enough by this industry and by teaching school to pay his way through college. But it was a slow process, and he was nearly twenty-seven years of age when he was graduated at Yale. Immediately upon his graduation he went to Georgia,—a long distance from home in those days,—having made an engagement to become a private tutor in a wealthy family of that State. On his arrival he found that the man who had engaged his services, unmindful of the contract, had filled the position with another tutor.

The widow of the famous Gen. Nathaniel Greene had a beautiful home at Mulberry Grove, on the Savannah River. Mrs. Greene invited young Whitney to make her house his home while he studied law. She soon perceived that he had great inventive genius. He devised several articles of convenience which Mrs. Greene much appreciated.

At that time the entire cotton crop of this country might have been produced upon a single field of two hundred acres. Cotton then commanded a very high price, because of the labor of separating the cotton fibre from the seed. The cotton clung to the seed with such tenacity that one man couldseparate the seed from only four or five pounds of cotton in a day. At that rate it would take him three months to make up a bale of clear cotton. Already inventions in machinery for the making of cotton cloth had made the production of cotton a necessity. Some means must be provided for a more rapid separation of cotton from the seed in order to make manufacturing profitable.

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