YIELD AND COST OF PRODUCTION 107 



Thus it took about 1 hour and 45 minutes of human labor to 

 harvest and thresh each bushel. These figures of Brewer are 

 too small, however, as compared with those given by the de- 

 partment of labor for 1830. According to the latter figures 

 it required 2 hours and 32 minutes at that time for the same 

 operations. In 1896, by the use of the combined harvester, 

 this time had been reduced to 5.6 minutes. The cost of human 

 labor per bushel had declined from 15 cents to 2.2 cents. The 

 entire time of human labor necessary to produce one bushel of 

 wheat, including sowing, reaping and threshing, fell from 3 hours 

 and 3 minutes in 1830 to 10 minutes in 1896. In the same period 

 of time the cost of human labor per bushel fell from 17% 

 cents to 3 1-3 cents. The cost of both animal and human labor 

 fell from 20 cents to less than 10 cents. The greatest saving 

 has been in harvesting. The human labor which does remain 

 is quite light compared to that of 1830. This reduction in 

 cost of production represented a saving of about $91,000,000 

 for the United States on the wheat crop of 1907. 



