FARM EQUIPMENT 99 



There is a wide range in the efficiency and the capacity of 

 the different machines intended for essentially the same pur- 

 pose, as for example plows, harrows, mowers, hay rakes, hay 

 loaders, reapers, threshers, and silage cutters. 



These differences exist at a given time because one kind of 

 machine is suited to one condition with respect to climate and 

 topography while another machine suits best under other con- 

 ditions. The fact is, however, that improvements made by 

 one company of manufacture is soon duplicated by another, 

 so that the machines on the market, available for a given type 

 of farming, vary but little after the principle has once been 

 thoroughly worked out. Mowing machines and self-binders, 

 for example, vary but little in construction aside from speed of 

 the sickle and length of the cutter bar, which differences enable 

 the farmer to choose to suit his condition. 



The range in the efficiency and capacity of machines is best 

 emphasized when the subject is viewed historically. Studies 

 made by the United States Department of Labor show that by 

 the methods used in 1829-1830 one hundred hours of labor 

 would produce about 46.5 bushels of barley, whereas in 1895- 

 1896 one hundred hours of man labor results in over 1 100 bushels. 

 While all of this change cannot necessarily be attributed to the 

 improvement of machinery it is certainly true that the effi- 

 ciency of machinery as measured in terms of product per unit 

 of human labor was enormously increased as a result of the 

 new forms of machinery introduced during this period. 



In the production of wheat each day's labor produced 3^ 

 bushels in 1829-1830, while under the machine method of 1896 

 the product had expanded to 60 bushels per day of human labor. 

 In general the increase in product per unit of man labor has 

 varied from 150 per cent in the case of rye to 2244 per cent in 

 the case of barley. 



Some of the machines which have so greatly increased the 

 product per man in agricultural production are too expensive 

 to be owned by the small farmer. The threshing machine, the 

 ensilage cutter, and the corn sheller are typical examples. In- 

 stead of increasing the size of the farm beyond the point of 



