66 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



the intelligence requisite for conducting extensive farming opera- 

 tions, as also for the using of machine power advantageously. 

 This, coupled with the breaking up of the old plantation system, 

 has tended to give smaller farms in the South Atlantic and South 

 Central divisions. 1 



Second : The character of the principal crops cultivated in the 

 Southern states are those in the cultivation of which, as compared 

 with the crops raised in the Northern states, machine power is but 

 little used. The only machine which plays any considerable part 

 in the production of the distinctively Southern crops is the cotton 

 gin, and the influence of this machine was in full operation long 

 before the year 1880 ; whereas the influence of the machines used 

 in the production of the distinctively Northern crops was, at that 

 time, only fairly well under way. 



Third : As between the North Atlantic, North Central, and 

 Western divisions, the character of the cultivation affects the size 

 of farms. The North Atlantic States are much devoted to market 

 gardening, and the general character of farm work in that division 

 is, therefore, more intensive, and a given area gives employment 

 for a greater quantity of both machine and man-labor power. 

 The Western States, in like manner, much more than the North 

 Central States, are devoted to market garden and orchard products. 2 

 The North Central States lead in what may be termed field crops. 3 



Looking to the total farm acreage, it may seem questionable 

 whether the effect of machinery is to increase or decrease the 

 size of farms. But it is noticeable that the total farm acreage 

 includes land kept for stock-raising, for timber supply, for specu- 

 lation, etc. and includes altogether too much of that with which 

 machinery has nothing to do, to make it a fit basis for a study of 

 the influence of farm machinery either upon the size of farms or 

 upon the nature and extent of farm work. When we use the word 

 " farm " to denote only that portion of the land with which machin- 

 ery has to do (i.e. the area devoted to the production of crops), it 

 becomes apparent that, other things being equal, the use of farm 



1 Hammond, Cotton Industry, pp. 123-129. 



2 See Twelfth Census, Agriculture, Vol. II, pp. 324, 599 et seq. 

 8 See pages 67-68. 



