THE PLIGHT OF THE FARMER 101 



rakes had transferred much of the physical exertion 

 of farming to the draft animals. But, after all, the 

 farmer owed less to steam and electricity than the 

 craftsman and the artisan of the cities. 



The American farmer, if he read the census re- 

 ports, might learn that rural wealth had increased 

 from nearly $4,000,000,000 in 1850 to not quite 

 $16,000,000,000 in 1890; but he would also discover 

 that in the same period urban wealth had advanced 

 from a little over $3,000,000,000 to more than 

 $49,000,000,000. Forty years before the capital of 

 rural districts comprised more than half that of the 

 whole country, now it formed only twenty-five per 

 cent. The rural population had shown a steady 

 proportionate decrease: when the first census was 

 taken in 1790, the dwellers of the country num- 

 bered more than ten times those of the city, but at 

 the end of the nineteenth century they formed only 

 about one-third of the total. Of course the intelli- 

 gent farmer might have observed that food for the 

 consumption of all could be produced by the work 

 of fewer hands, and vastly more bountifully as well, 

 and so he might have explained the relative decline 

 of rural population and wealth ; but when the aver- 

 age farmer saw his sons and his neighbors' sons 

 more and more inclined to seek work in town and 



