AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



CHAPTER I 



AGRICULTURE, MANUFACTURING, COMMERCE 



The Rank of Agriculture Among Our Industries. For many 

 years of our history agriculture was the leading industry. Agri- 

 culture came first as to the amount of capital invested, first as to 

 the value of the output, and first as to the number of persons 

 employed. This economic primacy gave agriculture an important 

 place in the early political life of the nation, many congressmen 

 and even several early presidents being actual farmers. George 

 Washington for instance was born and reared on the farm, died on 

 the farm, and lies buried on the farm. In Washington's day 

 wealth, intelligence, dignity, influence, all went with farming. 

 This primacy of agriculture has been lost due to the economic 

 evolution of our country and the development of its vast and vari- 

 ous resources. At the outset, then, let us examine some of the 

 evidences of this change in the rank of agriculture. The United 

 States Census Report for 1900 describes the situation in these words : 



" Down to 1880, or to some time between 1880 and 1890, agriculture was 

 the principal source of wealth in the United States. At the last census (1890) 

 the value of farm products was exceeded by that of manufactured products. 

 At the census of 1900, the value of farm products is shown to have been 

 $4,739,118,752. In this total there occur certain duplications which the 

 Report on Agriculture eliminates, leaving a residue of $3,764,177,706 as the 

 actual net value of all farm products in the census year. The net value of 

 the products of manufactures, as computed in the census, is $8,370,595,176, 

 a sum more than double the value of the net products of the farm. If from 

 this net value is eliminated everything in the way of crude materials contrib- 

 uted by the farm, the forest, the mine, and the sea, there is still left a value of 

 $5,981,454,234; and on this basis it appears that the contribution of manu- 

 factures and the mechanical arts to the wealth of the country exceeds the con- 

 tribution of agriculture by more than a billion dollars. N The figures indicate 

 that rapid as has been the development of agricultural interests, manufactures 

 have advanced even more rapidly. 



"This conclusion is strengthened by a consideration of the statistics of 

 occupations as presented at the several censuses . . . During the twenty 

 years, 1880 to 1900, the number engaged in agricultural pursuits increased 

 34.6 per cent, while the number engaged in manufacturing increased 87.2 

 per cent." 



The 1910 census compares the two thirty-year periods, 1850 

 to 1880 and 1880 to 1910. " During the first of these two periods," 



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