72 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



a field of operation suited to its capacity ; ^ just as a man, in order 

 that he may work to best advantage, requires more and heavier 

 labor than that suited to a boy. Hence the movement toward 

 larger farms and greater average crop acreage per farm so notice- 

 able in the machine-using states. Moreover, the larger farms call 

 for a corresponding increase in the amount of capital at the com- 

 mand of the farmer, especially when, as in this country, there is a 

 tendency toward more intensive cultivation. This is equally true 

 whether the farmer be an owner or a tenant. The increasing 

 amount of capital requisite for farm proprietorship makes it more 

 and more difficult for a member of the dependent class (i.e. an 

 agricultural laborer) to become a proprietor .^ His option to work 

 for himself or to work for wages is more and more qualified, and 

 hence the greater proportionate increase in the membership of the 

 dependent class. That there has been a constant increase in the 

 amount of capital requisite for farm proprietorship will be evident 

 from an inspection of the following data, showing for this group 

 of seven states, as reported to the Census Office : 



1, The average value, per farm, of all farm property, including 

 land with improvements, implements and machinery, and live stock, 

 was, in 1880, ^3515 ; in 1890, $4859; in 1900, $6531,3 



2, The average value, per farm, of lands with improvements, 

 including buildings, was, in 1880, $2835; in 1890, $3930; in 

 1900, $5358.^ 



1 In order to make the steam-power machines of value, the farms must be 

 large and extensive. On small farms they would prove too costly either in the 

 operation or initial expense. For this reason it has been said that steam power 

 could never supplant horse power on the farms, for our democratic notions 

 demand that farming-lands shall never be consolidated in the hands of a few, and 

 farming on a gigantic scale can never represent more than a very limited part of 

 the industry in this country. Yet the tendency in the West is to operate enormous 

 farms, combining several rather than cutting up into smaller ones. George E. 

 Walsh, " Steam Power for Agricultural Purposes," Harper's Weekly, Vol. XLV, 

 p. 567 



2 No English agricultural laborer, in his most sanguine dreams, has the vista of 

 occupying, still less of possessing, land. He cannot rise in his calling. He cannot 

 cherish any ambition, and he is in consequence dull and brutish, reckless and 

 supine. Rogers, " History of Agriculture and Prices," Vol. I, p. 693 



' Twelfth Census, Agriculture, Vol. I, pp. 688, 694. 

 * Ibid., pp. 688, 696. 



