L7 



where there are no mills to convert them into 

 flour, and few mechanics or other than farmers 

 to purchase the product. Hence we have im- 

 mense shipments of cheap, raw products over 

 louff lines of railway to tide water. The high 

 rates of freight and the low prices of products 

 which usually come together, depress the mar- 

 ket to an extent that makes production no long- 

 er profitable. 



Hence we may say that while improved facili- 

 ties for transportation have done much to in- 

 crease and extend agricultural production, and 

 to equalize the values of agricultural products 

 and of farm lands it has not been an unmixed 

 benefit. It will not be, perhaps, until the West- 

 ern line of profitable cereal growth has been 

 reached, when we may anticipate a reflex move- 

 ment in cereal crops and their more general pro- 

 duction in the East as well as the West. Corn 

 will carry with it cattle and other live stock, and 

 renewed and more general attention will be paid 

 to the preservation and improvement of the fer- 

 tility of farm lands. 



The chief advantage of modern transportation 

 to the agricultural class I apprehend to be in 

 the impulse that is given to intercommunication, 

 the waking up of dormant energies, and the dis- 

 semination of improved implements, improved 

 varieties of agricultural plants and animals and 

 improved processes. 



AGRICULTURAL, MACHINERY. 



3. But one of the most remarkable facts af- 

 fecting American agriculture, has been the Im- 

 provement of Agricultural Implements and 

 machinery. Least progress has been made, so 

 far as economy of force is concerned, in im- 

 plements used in turning and pulverizing the 

 soil. ?et the plough, the harrow, and the culti- 

 vator of to-day, are wonderful advances be- 

 yond these of the Revolutionary period, or 

 even of half a century ago. Down to within a 

 period in the remembrance of many now liv- 

 ing, the plough was of wood, pointed with iron 

 and its wooden mould board perhaps, covered 

 with strips of hoop iron. The reader of Gould's 

 elaborate report of the trial of ploughs, in the 

 New York Agricultural transactions of 1867, 

 will remember the immense distance between 

 the primitive American plough, described by 

 Mr. Allen and the modern implements of Hoi- 

 brook. Still more remarkable in the amount of 

 labor saved, and the quality of work, have 

 been the implements used in seed planting the 

 drill and the corn planter. More marked yet, is 

 the work of the harvesting implements, the 

 reaper, the mower, and the horse rake, and the 

 threshing machine. It is true that these im- 

 provements save labor in an unequal degree. A 

 single person can rake, perhaps 20 acres, mow 10 

 acres, and harrow, roll or plant, equal or greater 

 amounts of land ; but he cannot plough in any 

 equal ratio. It is true also, that in many cases 

 the cost of the work done, is not sensibly di- 

 minished. But the fact remains, that a much 



larger number of bushels of grain, or tons of 

 hay, and consequently of human food, can be 

 made with far less expenditure of human labor, 

 than ever before. A much smaller number of 

 persons are needed in agricultural processes, a 

 much larger number are set free to engage in 

 other pursuits. In the ten agricultural states 

 of the Northwest in 1870, but one-third of the 

 people of the CTnited States averaged 53 bushels 

 of corn for every man woman and child, and 

 nearly 75 bushels ea3h of cereals. 



The ultimate result or tendency of this im- 

 mense increase in the power of production, 

 which, however, has its limits in the productive 

 capacity of the soil, and the extent of its ara- 

 ble acres, is difficult to foresee. It does not add 

 in any equal ratio to the wealth of the agri- 

 cultural class. The free-hold farmer of Ameri- 

 ca, seems to me to follow very much the course 

 of the manual laborer in other departments 

 of industry. He obtains a subsistence, more or 

 Jess bare, according to his conditions ; but the 

 main profits of increased production go else- 

 where, usually I think, to the trader or the 

 transporter. The annual production and ad- 

 dition to one national wealth, is undoubtedly 

 immensely increased, but if we can trust the 

 census reports, this wealth accumulates in the 

 great cities. 



DIVISION OF LABOR. 



4. Another, and remarkable modification of 

 agricultural industry in America, has come from 

 the division of labor, as our civilization and 

 settlement advances. In the cabin of the pio- 

 neer, all arts and trades may be found. The 

 husbandman builds his bouse, makes his imple- 

 ments, grinds his corn and makes his shoes. 

 The wife spins, weaves and makes the clothing, 

 gathers the simples that answer as medicines, 

 and performs a hundred functions unknown to 

 more advanced communities. Later develop- 

 ments are changing all this, and go farther in 

 the direction of destroying the much advocat- 

 ed " mixed husbandry," and enforcing the hith- 

 erto condemned custom, of confining 1 agriculture 

 to the raw products. The making of cheese, but- 

 ter, cider, wine, vinegar, canned and dried fruits 

 and vegetables, sugars, syrups, starch, brooms, 

 &c., &c., under a law of our social develop- 

 ment became specialities, and leave the farm- 

 houses for the factories. The farmer's work 

 becomes therefore, more and more specialized 

 and confined to culture of the soil proper. It 

 remains to be seen whether this will be an ad- 

 vantage, or the contrary. It is opposed to the 

 rural economy, taught by many European and 

 American agriculturists, but will bring the ad- 

 vantages of greater concentration of purpose 

 and skill of labor. 



THE NATURAL SCIENCES. 



5. Scientific progress has had its effect on 

 American agriculture, One hundred years ago 

 there was no agricultural chemistry, meteorol- 

 ogy, botany, geology or zoology, comparable 



