MACHINERY IN AGRICULTURE. 15 



bution, it will be readily seen that though there has 

 been a very considerable increase of consumption, it 

 bears no proportion to the increase of production. 

 This fact is so self evident that it is clearly stated in 

 the Introduction to the Agricultural volume, United 

 States Census Reports, 1860, page xi, as follows : 



" Thus every machine or tool which enables one farm hand 

 to do the work of two, cheapens the product of his labor to ev- 

 ery consumer, and relieves one in every two of the population 

 from the duty of providing subsistence, enabling him to engage 

 in other pursuits," etc. 



The weak point in this statement is, that the au- 

 thor does not point out the " other pursuits " that are 

 not similarly affected, in which the " relieved " man 

 may " engage." No argument is required to show 

 that where one man is enabled, by the use of machin- 

 ery, to do the work of two, one is released or displaced, 

 and must find other employment or remain idle, be it 

 in farm work or any other. So, also, if one man be- 

 comes enabled to do the work of twenty, nineteen out 

 of the twenty are displaced. The only exception is 

 to be found in the cases where a corresponding in- 

 crease takes place in the consumption of the products, 

 if there are any such cases. Yet, notwithstanding 

 the absolute certainty of this principle, nothing is 

 more common than to hear it said that labor saving 

 machinery creates work that it gives more employ- 

 ment to manual labor, and throws no one into idle- 

 ness. But it is rare that this fallacy can be found in 

 print, in any publication carrying the least weight of 

 authority. Perhaps the most notable instance in 

 which this absurdity has been broadly stated, with an 



