40 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



PART II 

 Machinery and Production 



Concerning the Increase in Cultivated A rea per Farm Worker and 



the Gj'cater Effectiveness of Farm Workers when aided by the 



Use of Machinery, as shown by Reports of the Census Office 



The Census Office statistician for agriculture presents a table 

 as follows : * 



Farther on, speaking with reference to this table, he says : 



The number of acres of leading crops per male worker steadily increased, 

 while the number per working animal was substantially the same in 1900 as in 

 1 880. The increase in the productiveness of man's labor, therefore, is secured 

 by the increased utilization of the power of the horse and mule in driving farm 

 machinery. The figures of the table indicate two important changes in the 

 twenty years. One of these appears in the increase in the number of horses to 

 each male worker from 1.7 to 2.3, a gain of about 35 per cent : the other is the 

 increase in the number of acres cultivated to each male worker from 23.3 to 

 31.0, or about 34 per cent. From these figures it appears that in the last 

 twenty years, by the aid of machinery and the substitution of horse power for 

 hand labor, the effectiveness of human labor on farms has been increased to 

 the extent of about 33 per cent.- 



The statement that there has been an increase in the number 

 of horses and of acres cultivated, to each male worker, is mathe- 

 matically correct enough, but it gives the impression that the 



1 Twelfth Census, Agriculture, Vol. I, p. xxxi. 



