96 PRINCIPLES OF RURAL ECONOMICS 



used, but for much of the heaviest work, such as breaking the 

 sod, the latter seem to have been preferred. Since this time 

 oxen have continued to be used in small numbers and in back- 

 ward sections, but this date may be fixed upon as the turning 

 point in the transition from the ox to the horse as the typical 

 draft animal. This is a matter of greater importance than will 

 appear to the casual reader. In agriculture, as in manufacturing, 

 the question of power is a question of fundamental importance. 

 The transition from ox to horse power is a matter of almost 

 as great importance as that from water to steam power in 

 manufacturing. 



Agricultural disorganization. Though this free-land system 

 did enable the country to absorb the immense labor supply 

 without glutting the labor market and producing civil disturb- 

 ances, it produced, on the other hand, a glut in the market for 

 agricultural produce and disturbed the agricultural equilibrium 

 not only of this country but of western Europe as well. Among 

 other things this resulted in the partial disorganization of the 

 agriculture of the eastern states. The abandonment of farms, 

 which had begun during the preceding period, now reached its 

 maximum. So eager were settlers to acquire Western land that, 

 in many cases, this motive rather than the preference for agri- 

 culture itself led men to take up land and to turn farmers. 

 Instead of acquiring land for the purpose of growing crops, it 

 frequently happened that crops were grown in order that the 

 settler might acquire land, that is, in order that he might occupy 

 his time during the period which the government required him 

 to live upon his land. Frequently, if not in the majority of 

 cases, the crops were grown at a loss, if the farmer had counted 

 his own wages as a part of the cost of growing these crops. 

 They were certainly grown at a loss if he -had counted as a 

 part of the cost the expense necessary to restore to the soil 

 the fertility that was extracted. But the farmer counted the 



