274 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



sheet being the tools used, while in unit 17 a horse-power thrasher 

 was used in 1870. This thrasher took 13 hours and 17.5 minutes to 

 do the work done by the steam thrasher in 2 hours and 37 . 5 minutes. 

 In unit 13, under the hand method, the thrashing required 41 hours 

 and 5 minutes as against i hour and 16.8 minutes, the time required 

 by the use of the modern thrasher (including the time charged to 

 hauling water) a ratio of more than 32 to i in favor of the machine. 

 In unit 1 8, the tune required under the earlier and later methods, 

 respectively, was 26 hours and 45 . i minutes and 7 hours. This dis- 

 proportionately long time required (7 hours) is explained in part by 

 the fact that the length of the rye straw made the work much slower 

 than with other grains, and in part by the fact that the rye being 

 thrashed from the barn mow, more men were necessary than if it 

 had been thrashed from wagons. The actual running time of the 

 thrasher in this case was 30 minutes. 



This group presents a comparison of extremes, the appliances 

 being entirely changed throughout in some of the units, showing a 

 more complete supplanting of hand by machine labor than can be 

 found, perhaps, in any other line of agriculture. These changes have 

 taken place in the past sixty-five years, as indicated by the dates given 

 by these units, though in fact most of them have occurred in a much 

 shorter period. In units 3 and 27 the number of operations is prac- 

 tically reduced to two, and it is in these units that the greatest aggre- 

 gate saving was effected, the total time in unit 3 being 63 hours and 

 35 minutes under the earlier and 2 hours and 42 . 8 minutes under the 

 later method a ratio of more than 23 to i in favor of the modern 

 method; while in unit 27 the respective totals are 64 hours and 15 

 minutes and 2 hours and 58.2 minutes a ratio of nearly 22 to i. 

 These results are the best shown in this industry. 



82. THE RELATION OF FARM CAPITAL TO LABOR INCOME 1 

 BY E. H. THOMSON AND H. M. DIXON 



In the course of a farm-management survey of three representative 

 areas in Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa, records were secured from 247 

 tenant farmers. These men made an average labor income of $870 

 from an investment of less than $2,500. When it is remembered that 

 the farm-owners with over 12 times this investment made less than 

 half the labor income of the tenants, the evidence is unmistakable that 



1 Adapted from Bulletin 41, United States Department of Agriculture, pp. 11-13. 



