The saying,
"He that by the plough would thrive
Himself must either hold or drive,"
is largely true, but only the small farmer can comply with it. The man
of many acres cannot restrict his presence to one field, and must
adopt for his motto the equally true proverb, "The master's eye does
more than both his hands."
The thrashing-machine is the ultimate test of the yield or cast of the
wheat crop, and it seems to have something itself to say about it. For
when the straw is short the cast is generally good, and _vice versa_.
In the first case the machine runs evenly, and gives out a contented
and cheerful hum, but in the second it remonstrates with intermittent
grunts and groans. Even when the yield is pretty good, the voice of
the machine is not nearly so encouraging to the imaginative farmer,
when prices are low, as when prices are up.
Throughout the course of my farming the gloomy note of the machine was
that which predominated, but in the spring of 1877, on the prospect of
complications with Russia, when wheat rose to I think nearly 70s. a
quarter, it was again a cheerful sound, for I had several ricks of the
previous year's crop on hand. I do not remember that bread rose to
anything like the extent that occurred in the Great War. Forty years
has marvellously widened the gap between the raw material and the
finished product--that is, between producer and consumer; immense
increases have taken place in the cost of labour employed by miller
and baker, and rates and other expenses are much higher.
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