Such a machine would revolutionize the tenant system, would permit a larger production of food, and at the same time would set labor free for other occupations.

Meanwhile the general rate of wages in agriculture has risen and must rise still further, as it has done in other occupations.

Any student of economics who draws his conclusions from observation of life as well as from books realizes how large a part custom plays in determining wages, and hitherto farm wages have been very low and labor has been inefficient in the South.
The economic future of the South must rest upon the advance of the farmer.

This thesis has already been developed at length in another chapter, where the present unsatisfactory organization and conditions of agriculture were also discussed.

Improvement, however, is already becoming evident.