754 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



quickened the introduction of agricultural machinery. This is 

 illustrated in the development of wheat production in the North- 

 west, which could not have taken place on such a grand scale 

 without the aid of the binder. But to whatever extent machines 

 may have been substituted for manual labor, there has been since 

 1 89 1 no reduction in their cost sufficient to lessen materially the 

 farmer's outlay in production. Nor was the fall in prices of farm 

 products beginning with 1892 due in any marked degree to the 

 introduction of machinery prior to that date. Successive improve- 

 ments in a machine and reductions in its price always precede its 

 general use ; and these features were not especially characteristic 

 of the several years preceding 1892. There was, however, a notice- 

 able increase in the export value of agricultural implements during 

 these years, and of this increase harvesting machinery contributed 

 an important item a fact probably related to the enlarged wheat 

 production of Russia and Argentina in recent years. 



3. Rural wealth. During the forty years ending with 1890, 

 rural wealth increased fourfold. Even during the decade 1880- 

 1890, notwithstanding the marked depreciation of farm lands in 

 certain states, there was for the country at large a substantial 

 advance in the sum total of rural wealth. The source of this 

 increase, however, has not been confined to the ordinary profits 

 of the farmer's business. Part of it is to be credited to soil 

 exploitation, and part to the " unearned increment " incidental to 

 the growth of land values. An increase within a generation of 

 more than $25 per acre in the value of farm lands in many states 

 roughly measures the influence of the latter factor ; that of the 

 former is indicated by the cost of purchased fertility. It has 

 been demonstrated that, though "the wheat crops of Ohio have 

 been slightly increased by the use of commercial fertilizers, . . . 

 the average cost of this increase has equaled its market value." 

 These conditions have unquestionably attracted energy from other 

 pursuits into the business of food production, with the effect of 

 depressing agricultural profits proper below their natural level. 



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4. The farmer in contrast with his fellows. Let us now com- 

 pare the farmer's well-being with that of his fellows in other 



