MACHINERY IN AGRICULTURE. 19 



had upon labor nearly sixty years ago : viz., that it 

 released, or displaced, twenty-nine out of the thirty 

 hands then and there employed, and compelled those 

 displaced hands to find other employment or to re- 

 main idle. 



With these preliminary remarks I will endeavor to 

 find what has been the actual effect caused by the in- 

 troduction and use of machinery in general produc- 

 tion, upon the employment of manual labor in our 

 country, during the present century. In doing this I 

 shall confine myself to a few of the special employ- 

 ments that contribute directly to the supply of the 

 three great wants of mankind the production and 

 distribution of the principal necessaries of life as- 

 suming that what is there found to be true may with 

 safety be taken as the basis for estimating its effects 

 in all other productive industries. 



As agriculture lies at the base of human providence 

 we will begin there. Throughout Europe and Ameri- 

 ca, until within a comparatively recent date, the im- 

 plements of the farm remained extremely primitive 

 and inefficient in form. It was at no remote period 

 that the hoe, in its crudest shape, and the spade, 

 equally clumsy, were the principal tools for tillage. 

 Though the plow, or something used for that purpose, 

 has been to some extent in use from time immemorial, 

 that implement as we now know it is a new tool or 

 machine. Originally nothing more than the branch 

 or trunk of a tree, with its forked or curved end sharp- 

 ened to scratch a furrow for the seed. Similar plows 

 are now in common use throughout Mexico. Then a 

 mere wedge with a short beam and straight handle, it 



