of rest before a
second. Two men with a cross-cut saw, although their motions are alike, do
more than twice as much as one man, because of the relief in pushing back
the saw.

A most important limit, however, is made by the inconstancy of natural
forces employed in any industry. This is notable in all the processes of
agriculture. No matter how many workers combine in raising field crops,
they can gain but few advantages from dividing their tasks minutely. Each
laborer must be employed through the year, and the change of seasons
requires that he be ready for all the operations of the different seasons
in planting and tilling and gathering through all the succession. Ordinary
changes of weather, cold or hot, wet or dry, windy or calm, make necessary
changes in his labor. The uncertainties of each year as to moisture and
heat require a variety of ventures, so that no farmer dares confine
himself to raising but a single crop. Even under the most favorable
conditions the different stages of growth are so intimately related that
the watchfulness of the same interested manager is required at every
stage. A delicate plant must be carried delicately, even in transplanting.
More important still are the conditions of fertility, which make a
rotation of crops and even mixed farming essential to highest
productiveness. If each field must have its definite series of cropping
and tillage, together with the application of animal manures, the
advantage of these combined operations under the oversight and labor of a
single farmer outweighs the advantage of more perfect division of labor.

The result of all these limitations, so obvious in agriculture, is that
farm work is but slightly more effective or more continuous than it was
hundreds of years since. While improved machinery has immensely reduced
the cost of certain processes, a year's labor involves innumerable changes
of employment, so that no farmer inquires, in hiring his help, for an
expert in any direction, but wants a man of all work whose skill is
largely ingenuity in adjusting himself to the constantly changing duties.

_Suggestions of fuller division of farm labor._--It seems possible, with
the improved condition of agriculture and the nearness of ready markets,
to attempt a larger use of division of labor in several directions. A
group of farmers, well acquainted with the possible advantages, may
classify their farms as grain farms, dairy farms, breeding farms, feeding