116 AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY AND TRUST QUESTION 



the four factors, such as land, buildings, machinery, and livestock. 

 The management of "capital," therefore, rather than the manage- 

 ment of. land, becomes the uppermost consideration, and in that 

 sense, agriculture becomes " capitalistic." Among the beneficial 

 effects of improved machinery are two very important ones, 

 namely, increased yields and lessened cost of production. Crude 

 implements admitted only of crude tillage (Fig. 14). With im- 

 provements in tillage tools came increase in yields. An increase 

 in the yield of the products of the farm, without an increase in 

 the demand for such products, would of course, merely result in 



FIG. 14. Evolution of the reaper. Cyrus Hall McCormick's first successful reaper, invented 

 in 1831 and patented in 1834. 



lowering their price, and hence, in lowering the rent of the land or in 

 putting the poorer grades of land out of use altogether. It is of 

 course true that the consumer's demand for bread and meat 

 may increase or decrease from decade to decade. Or the increase 

 in production is disposed of by way of the foreign markets. Thus 

 our great staples wheat, meat, and cotton feed and clothe many 

 people in many foreign lands. These products in turn are ex- 

 changed in part for food products, in part for other things. But 

 the result of increased production at home, therefore, is seen to 

 be an increase in food consumption, but food of many varieties 

 from many corners of the world. Tropical fruits that were once 

 a luxury for the rich are now a commonplace on the tables of the 

 working man. 



