FARM MACHINERY 



75 



several cases production is still almost wholly by hand method.^ In 

 such cases the data are not what they appear to be, a showing of 

 hand method as compared with inachine method, but rather only 

 a showing of production by hand method at different dates. 



It will be worth our while to, inquire in what way the introduc- 

 tion of machine power has affected the rates of wages for the 

 work of producing these different crops. Turning first to a con- 

 sideration of wages paid in the production of five crops, now 

 largely produced by machine power, we collect the following data : 



An average of averages gives 66 cents for the hand methods 

 and $1.76 for the machine method an increase of 166 per cent. 



A similar showing for the five crops,, in which there appears to 

 have been little or no change in the methods of production, is 

 as follows : 



Unit Number' 



Average Daily Wages 



Hand 



Machine' 



2 

 16 



9 

 21 



24 



Apple trees . 

 Potatoes . . 

 Strawberries . 

 Sweet potatoes 

 Tomatoes . . 



$1.56 



1. 00 



1.30 



.76 



93 



$1.28 



1. 00 



1.38 



.62 



.91 



An average of averages gives $1.11 as the average daily wage 

 in the time of hand methods and $ i .04 as the average daily wage 

 in the time of machine methods a decrease of 6.3 per cent 



1 Thirteenth Annual Report, Dept. Labor, p. ii. 

 '^ See footnote 2, p. 45. 



