266 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



products has been removed from the country and industrialized in 

 town. ' In strict logic the fertilizer plant, the implement factory, and 

 the stock-feed mill are functioning as capital-goods for the farmer, 

 though their ownership is vested in other hands. Likewise, the 

 grain fleet and the granger railway equip agriculture with capital- 

 goods no different in point of service from the farmer's team and 

 Wagon which haul his wheat to the elevator. Naturally, since these 

 specialized industries auxiliary to agriculture have left the farm and 

 grown up in the city, we do not try to merge their capital-account 

 with that of agriculture. But it is well to note that the farmer is the 

 beneficiary of whatever added power has come to these collaborating 

 industries through their accumulations of capital-goods. 



Looking, then, at the r61e of capital-goods employed directly in 

 the processes of agriculture, it is evident that there are some pecul- 

 iarities which distinguish this industry from others. Agriculture is, 

 in the nature of the case, an out-of-doors process. As a result, build- 

 ings are bound to remain a less important item in the productive 

 equipment of the farm enterprise than is the case in factory employ- 

 ments. This does not mean, however, that the farmer can afford to 

 neglect this factor of his productive plant. No matter how skilful a 

 breeder or feeder one is, his labor will produce but a sorry product if 

 he is not equipped with proper housing for his stock. The labor that 

 raises big yields of grain or cotton or fruit will net but a fraction of its 

 possible productivity if, for lack of storage facilities, the gram gets 

 moldy, the .cotton stained, and the apples frosted, or if crops must be 

 dumped on the market regardless of consumers' demands. There are 

 many regions in which building investments might be expanded, to the 

 great increase in efficiency of farm operation. Today machinery rusts 

 out for lack of shelter, and the efficiency of the laborer himself is 

 sometimes lowered by the lack of proper housing (see selection 30). 

 A recent study of tenancy in the South indicates that an important 

 factor in the low efficiency of tenant farmers in Texas is to be found 

 in the inadequate buildings for sheltering machinery and stock and 

 for housing the tenant family. 1 



As for devices for catching and harnessing the powers of nature, 

 mechanical pursuits seemed long to have the best of agriculture, since 

 water and steam power were well adapted to their uses and little 

 suited to the needs of the small and scattered operations incident to 

 agriculture. Horse-power has worked wonders for agriculture since 



1 Bulletin of the University of Texas, 1915, No. 39. 



