THE MOVEMENT OF WHEAT-GROWING 347 



wheat counties are further evidence of the economy of the " one- 

 set " farm of the proper size. It is true that wages per day for 

 hired labor are not the same in the three counties. Thus Renville 

 County is nearest the large cities, and gets labor the cheapest. 

 Polk County is farthest away, and must pay the highest wages. 

 After making due allowance for this, however, the relation still 

 holds, as shown above. 



Turning to the total value of the product per acre, we notice 

 that the highest figures are those for Olmsted County in 1870. 

 This was the result of wheat-farming under the reaper regime, 

 and the high figures are due to the exceptionally high price of 

 wheat at that time. The richest farmers in Olmsted County to- 

 day will tell you that they got their " start " during those years. 

 Although the value of the product per acre over and above the 

 cost of labor and the cost of implements and machinery, as de- 

 termined from the above figures, appears higher in 1900 under 

 diversified farming than in the reaper era under high wheat 

 prices (being $11.52 per acre for the former and $9.17 per acre 

 for the latter), notice must be taken of another item of expense 

 not shown in the above table. Reference is made to the wide 

 contrast in the prices of land. This expense was very small in 

 1870. Now, however, the Olmsted farmer has to pay fifty or 

 sixty dollars an acre for land (this means with buildings, fences, 

 and other equipment, or total investment necessary to buy a farm). 

 When rent on this is computed, the advantages of the wheat 

 farmer of 1870 become evident. 



We are now in a position to appreciate the meaning of a move- 

 ment that has taken place in the wheat-farming regions of the 

 Northwest during recent years. This is the breaking-up of the 

 bonanza wheat farm. When the experiment on these large farms 

 was first begun and a long series of machines and implements 

 were put to work on the great plains, the power was so great and 

 the scale of work so large that many believed the most economical 

 method of wheat-farming had been secured, and that farming on 

 a small scale was henceforth doomed to failure. Mere size of in- 

 dustry, however, does not insure efficiency. The latter can only 

 be secured where labor and capital are combined with land in 



