QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 35 



196. Q. Does the development of manufacturing villages increase the Production. 

 value of the production of the adjacent farms? 



A. Not to any great extent ; not bej'^ond the saving of freight from other 

 points, as prices are generally regulated by the rates prevalent at the large 

 centres of commercial trade. 



197. Q. Do the people living in the cities generally profit by the low l,ow Prices, 

 prices brought about by the agricultural depression ? 



A. No ; for while the raising of Western beef is almost unprofitable to 

 the herdsmen, the people of the cities pay almost as much as formerly, the 

 profits going to the middle men, who by the use of immense capital drive 

 out all competitors and keep the retail prices up. 



198. Q. Is the tendency in the old sections of the country to divide Division of 

 farms or to unite them ? Farms. 



A. In the old States to divide, farms going into the hands of smaller 

 operators. 



199. Q. How much labor on the large farms of Dakota does it take Farm Labor, 

 to provide bread for 1000 persons ? 



A. The labor of each man employed, estimating his employment as con- 

 tinuous for twelve months, is 5500 bushels. Another man's labor for a 

 year converts this wheat into flour ; five men's labor for a year transfers it 

 to Philadelphia ; three more convert it into bread and sell it, thus ten men 

 working one year produce bread for 1000 mouths. 



Continuing in this line of calculation based upon the use of labor-sav- 

 ing machinery, if twenty men make the clothing, twenty more build the 

 houses, twenty more provide the literature and amusements, twenty more 

 manage the public oflices and ten more provide miscellaneous necessi- 

 ties, we thus have 100 adults providing all the necessities for 1000 

 mouths. If 1000 mouths represent 200 men, we perceive that while 100 

 of these men have employment all the year round the other 100 are idle, 

 consequent upon the development of machine processes and the expansion 

 of railroads and opening of new lands. 



200. Q. Are the agricultural lands in any of the States worked to their Agricultural 

 full capacity ? Capacity. 



A. They are not ; American farmers have no conception what it is to 

 work land to its full capacity of production. The most intensely culti- 

 vated gardens in the United States do not yield more than the aver- 

 age production of whole districts at France, Belgium and Holland, and 

 yet the quantity of grain harvested of crop 1891 was 3,538,000,000 

 bushels. 



201. Q. Does subsoiling pay ? Subsoiling. 

 A. Yes; on all lands having a retentive subsoil, as such holds so much 



moisture as to retard healthy plant development, as such soils also do the 

 unrestricted development of tap root and deep running fibres. 



Such soils should be broken up by a subsoil plow or coulter affixed to 

 a plow beam and run in the bottom of every open furrow, after a common 



