INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION 805 



is required. But as time goes on the ditches must be made increas- 

 ingly large and expensive in order to cultivate the higher, so-called 

 bench lands, which it is discovered are the more fertile. A single 

 ditch means the investment of hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

 Reservoirs are next constructed so as to save the flood-waters and 

 to equalize the supply of water, bringing water to crops late in the 

 season when natural streams run dry. The relations of farmer to 

 farmer and of farmers to others who need water for manufacturing 

 purposes or for urban purposes become daily more complicated, until 

 the solution of the problem thus presented becomes a task worthy of 

 the best intellects of our time. Now it is said that it requires a high 

 type of man to succeed in agriculture in a state like Colorado, and I 

 must say that I have never elsewhere seen farmers who, as a whole, 

 impressed me as so active and alert, so much like capitalistic manu- 

 facturers. Those equal to the task set by irrigated agriculture seem 

 to make large gains, and the others to be crowded down and out. At 

 the same time the proper regulation of the economic relations 

 involved in irrigated agriculture is a condition of the utilization of 

 natural resources and also a condition of liberty, for without regula- 

 tion we have the oppression of the weak and the tyranny of the 

 strong. 



The American Economic Association has recently published a 

 monograph by Dr. H. W. Quaintance, instructor in economics in 

 the University of Missouri, that throws a good deal of light on the 

 nature of agricultural development. It is entitled The Influence 

 of Farm Machinery on Production and Labor. One fact brought 

 out clearly is the newness of our present farm implements and 

 agricultural methods. It is stated that agriculture in our colonial 

 period was not markedly different from that of Egypt two thousand 

 years ago. On the other hand it is shown that on an average for our 

 nine principal crops, namely, barley, corn, cotton, hay, oats, rice, 

 wheat, potatoes, and rye, nearly four fifths of the present yield is due 

 to the use of farm machinery. That is to say, farm labor is esti- 

 mated to be nearly five times as effective in the production of these 

 crops as it was as recently as 1850. With the exception of one of the 

 nine crops, namely, cotton, a decrease of labor is absolute as well as 

 relative. But this means difficulty of adjustment along several lines 

 and also increased demands upon brain power and moral force. It 

 requires a far larger amount of capital than formerly to carry on 

 agriculture with success and consequently hired laborers have been 

 increasing rapidly in states like Illinois. It requires a better man to 

 use machinery than to carry on agriculture by the old methods. 

 Consequently we find a large increase in the daily wages of workmen 

 employed in the production of crops which require a use of machinery 

 and a knowledge of machinery on the part of the hired laborers. On 



