54 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



The Absolute Displacement 



For the agricultural industry considered as a whole, New 

 England furnishes an instance of the absolute displacement of 

 labor. In 1880 the population, ten years of age and over, en- 

 gaged in agriculture, numbered 304,679 ; but in 1900 the number 

 was only 287,829. This decrease was not due to a decadence of 

 agriculture in those states, for the value of the New England 

 agricultural products was more than fifty per cent greater in 1900 

 than in 1880.^ It must have been due to the introduction of 

 machinery as indicated by the reported valuation of agricultural 

 implements and machines, which increased from ;^i.68 per acre 

 of improved land in 1880 to $4.49 per acre in 1900.2 



With respect to the work of cultivating and caring for those 

 nine crops in the production of which machinery appears to be 

 most extensively used, we may determine what absolute displace- 

 ment, if any, has taken place by finding in each case what amount 

 of labor was necessarily employed in the time of production by 

 hand methods and comparing that amount with the amount of 

 labor necessarily employed in the time of production by machine 

 methods. Data of crop production for the exact years covered by 

 the report of the Department of Labor concerning production by 

 hand method cannot be secured for all of the crops, but taking the 

 best available data and tabulating results we have the following : 



DAYS' WORK OF MAN-LABOR REQUIRED FOR PRODUCING THE 



Crop of^ 



By Methods of Days' Work 



Barley . 

 Corn . . 

 Cotton . 

 Hay . . 

 Oats . . 

 Potatoes 

 Rice . . 

 Rye . . 

 Wheat . 

 Total 



1839 

 1855 

 184 1 



1849 



1839 

 1866 

 1871 

 1849 

 1839 



1829-1830 



1855 



1841 



1850 



1830 



1866 



1870-1871 



1847-1848 



1829-1830 



882,007 



74.151. 217 



13,717,188 



29,176,470 



20,381,312 



5,307,260 



124,383 



3.574.396 



25,905,766 



173,219,999 



