FARM MACHINERY 43 



The Greater Effectiveness of Farm Workers when aided by the 

 Use of Machinery, as shown by Investigations of the Department 



of Labor 



The Thirteenth 'Annual Report of the Department of Labor 

 gives the results of an extended investigation concerning produc- 

 tion by hand and by machine methods, and affords the means for 

 a reliable estimate of the influence of machine power. That por- 

 tion devoted to agricultural operations, shows in detail, for example, 

 how many persons were ordinarily required for the production, by 

 hand or by machine methods, of a given quantity of barley ; what 

 separate operations were necessary in that production, as plowing, 

 sowing, harrowing, etc. ; what time was required for each opera- 

 tion, what tools or machines, if any, or other helps were used, and 

 the money cost of each operation. 



From the summary given on pages 24-25 of that report it 

 appears that the man-labor power requisite for the production of 

 thirty bushels of barley, by the methods commonly in use in the 

 season of 1829-1830, amounted to 63 hours and 35 minutes. 

 The man-labor power required for accomplishing the same result, 

 by the methods commonly in use in the season of 1 895-1 896, is 

 shown to have been only 2 hours and 42.8 minutes. From such 

 data, the barley crop of 1896 being known, we may readily deter- 

 mine not only what amount of man-labor was requisite for the 

 production of that crop by the means commonly in use at that 

 time, but also how much barley that same labor power could have 

 produced by the means commonly in use in the season of 1829- 

 1830. The difference between the quantity actually produced in 

 the season of 189 5- 1896 and the quantity which the labor power 

 required for the work of that season could have produced by the 

 earlier hand methods will represent the greater product due to 

 the use of machinery. The crediting of the whole of this differ- 

 ence to the use of machinery is, doubtless, crediting it with too 

 much. Credit is due, also, to better methods of cultivation, to 

 pulverization of soils, to the use of fertilizers, to irrigation, rotation 

 of crops, better seed, etc. These are not machine forces, although 

 they are largely dependent upon the use of machinery, as the use 



