Modern farm methods are continually demanding more power. Larger implements are being used and heavier horses are required to pull them. A great deal of farm work is done by engine power. Farm power is profitable when it is employed to its full capacity in manufacturing high-priced products. It may be profitable also in preventing waste by working up cheap materials into valuable by-products. The modern, well-managed farm is a factory and it should be managed along progressive factory methods. In a good dairy stable hay, straw, grains and other feeds are manufactured into high-priced cream and butter.
Figure 102.—Wire Stretcher. A small block and tackle will stretch a single barb-wire tight enough for a fence. By using two wire snatches the ends of two wires may be strained together for splicing.
Figure 103.—Block and Tackle. The rope is threaded into two double blocks. There is a safety stop that holds the load at any height.
Farming pays in proportion to the amount of work intelligently applied to this manner of increasing values. It is difficult to make a profit growing and selling grain. Grain may sell for more than the labor and seed, but it takes so much vitality from the land that depreciation of capital often is greater than the margin of apparent profit. When grains are grown and fed to live-stock on the farm, business methods demand better buildings and more power, which means that the farmer is employing auxiliary machinery and other modern methods to enhance values.
In other manufacturing establishments raw material is worked over into commercial products which bring several times the amount of money paid for the raw material.