272 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



seeding, a sack was the tool or implement used in all these units under 

 the earlier method, the seed being sown broadcast and covered by 

 the use of a brush, drag, or harrow. The time for sowing the seed 

 was quite uniform, being, under the primitive method, i hour and 

 25 minutes in units 3, 13, and 27; i hour and 22.5 minutes in unit 17; 

 i hour and 15 minutes in unit 26, and i hour in unit 18. Under the 

 modern method a broadcast seeder was used in units 13 and 26, the 

 sowing being done in 20 minutes and 15 minutes, respectively, or in 

 about one-fourth and one-fifth of the time required by hand, as just 

 shown. The subsequent harrowing to cover the seed occupied 50 

 minutes and 1 2 minutes, respectively, in these units as against 2 hours 

 and 50 minutes and 2 hours and 30 minutes under the earlier method. 

 In unit 17 the seed was sown and covered at one operation in 55 

 minutes as against a total of 3 hours and 12.5 minutes required for the 

 work done in two operations under the more primitive method. The 

 same conditions were found in unit 18 as in unit 17, the time being 

 i hour under the modern and 2 hours and 40 minutes under the 

 primitive method. The greatest advance in these units is to be seen 

 in those numbered 3 and 27, where, under the machine method, a 

 combined gang plow, seeder, and harrow broke the ground, sowed and 

 covered the seed, and pulverized the topsoil at one operation. This 

 was accomplished in unit 3 in 10. 9 minutes, the power being a traction 

 engine requiring the attention of two men, making the aggregate time 

 21.8 minutes. In unit 27 the same work was done in 15 minutes, 

 the aggregate time for the engineer and fireman necessary to run the 

 machine being 30 minutes. Strictly speaking, the time of the water- 

 hauler should be added, as he was necessary for the operation of the 

 machines used. Adding this time and comparing it with total time 

 required for the operations done separately by the primitive method, 

 the time was 32.7 minutes under the modern as against 10 hours and 

 55 minutes under the primitive method in unit 3, and 45 minutes as 

 against 10 hours and 55 minutes in unit 27, a reduction to about one- 

 twentieth and one-fifteenth the time required under the hand method 

 in the respective units. This great saving is accounted for by the 

 fact that the implement used under the modern method was a six- 

 gang plow, each gang having 4 plows, each plow cutting 10 inches 

 total 240 inches with a seeder and harrow attached to each gang, 

 and all operated by a traction engine. This would seem to mark the 

 limit of progress in this direction, and such machinery is obviously 

 of profitable use only in a level country where farming is conducted 

 on a large scale. 



