46 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



indicated, and the quantities which the labor power requisite for 

 their production with the aid of machines could have produced 

 had it been devoted to the production of those same crops by 

 hand methods, we have the following : 



Barley . 

 Com 

 Cotton . 

 Hay . . 

 Oats . . 

 Potatoes 

 Rice . . 

 Rye . . 

 Wheat . 



Crop of 



1896 

 1894 

 1895 

 1895 

 1893 

 189s 

 1895 

 1895 



Due to Use of 

 Machinery 



66,722,384 



739,242,030 



4,642,122 



38,276,901 

 570,421,543 



1 93' 534.049 

 122,381,853 



16,337.275 

 404,438,856 



bushels 



bushels 



bales 



tons 



bushels 



bushels 



pounds 



bushels 



bushels 



Per Cent of Actual 

 Product 



957 

 60.9 

 64.8 

 81.3 

 89.2 



65.1 

 72.5 

 60.0 

 94-5 



The increased effectiveness of man-labor power when aided by 

 the use of machinery, as indicated by these figures, varies from 

 150 per cent in the case of rye to 2244 per cent in the case 

 of -barley. From this point of view a machine is "not a labor- 

 saving " but rather a '" product-making " device.^ Taking the per 

 cent of labor saved (see p. 52), as indicating the average pro- 

 portion of these crops due to the use of machinery, it appears 

 that the quantity of product is almost five times as great, per unit 

 of labor, as it formerly was. 



The Cost of Production 



Touching the difference in the cost of production per unit of 

 product, the Thirteenth Annual Report of the Department of 

 Labor furnishes some data that will well repay a somewhat extended 

 consideration. It should be observed, however, that these data 

 with reference to the cost of production, although collected at 

 the same time and, doubtless, with the same care as the data 

 already tak/?eatfrom that report, are, nevertheless, for the purposes 

 of generateation, far less reliable. The average workman will 

 perform the same quantity of work in a day, whether he works in 



^ Hadley, Economics, p. 338. 



