FARM MACHINERY 47 



one locality or in another ; but rates of wages vary with localities 

 and may vary both absolutely and relatively with differences in 

 time. With this qualification in mind, it will be safe to take 

 up the consideration of the data. 



Including the crops above considered, the report of the Depart- 

 ment of Labor gives detailed information concerning the cost of 

 production, by hand and by machine methods, of twenty-one 

 different crops. The table on the next page gives the results 

 of the several investigations in this particular, arranged in the 

 order of the greatest saving in cost of production by machine as 

 compared with hand methods. 1 



The per cent column of this table shows that, for the most 

 part, there has been a very great decrease in the cost of producing 

 these various crops. The median is 39.92 per cent, but this 



1 In the production of peas and in both tobacco crops there has been an 

 increase in the cost. This increase is not, however, from the use of machinery 

 in the production of these crops, but rather from the lack of it. In the case 

 of tobacco (unit 22), for example, in which there has been the greatest increase 

 in cost, the hand-method production was with the aid of the following : wagon, 

 spades, hoes, rakes, wooden-moldboard plows, harrow, turnplow, wooden pegs 

 for setting plants, plow for cultivating, and tobacco knives. The total extent of 

 the machinery used in the production of this crop by machine methods was 

 as follows : plow, harrow, rakes, hoes, disk harrow, drag, wagon and barrels, 

 transplanter, double-shovel plow, tobacco knives, wagon and racks, and screw 

 racket prize (Thirteenth Annual Report, Dept. Labor, p. 464). It must be 

 evident at once from a comparison of these items that the difference in ma- 

 chinery cannot account for the difference in cost of production. The cause of" 

 the increased cost in the production of tobacco and peas (units 15, 22, and 23) 

 was a higher rate of wages. In the case of peas, wages rose from 62| cents to 

 $1 per day. In the case of tobacco (unit 22), wages rose from 30 cents per day 

 to $20 and $23 per month; in unit 23, the rise of wages was from 75 cents to 

 $1 per day. It will be readily understood that when there is little or no change 

 in the methods of production a rise in the rate of wages must cause a rise in the 

 total cost of production. 



The " hand method " of production, as explained in the report of the depart- 

 ment, " should not be construed to mean a method whereby a product is made 

 entirely by the unaided hand and absolutely without the use of machines, but 

 rather as the primitive method of production which was in vogue before the 

 general use of automatic or power machines" (Thirteenth Annual Report, Dept. 

 Labor, p. 11). Similarly, it should be observed in this connection that machine 

 method does not necessarily imply that machines are used, but only that the work 

 was done by the most approved methods practiced in more recent years. 



For a table of wages under hand and machine methods, see page 74. 



