Introductory Chapter. 5 



Having, therefore, obtained a similar result by tliree dift'crcnt and 

 independent processes, we may with some confidence assume, as 

 the anmial production, 187,500 plows for domestic use. 



We have endeavored to ascertain the annual value of the plows 

 made in this country and exported to foreign countries, but, from 

 the fact that all the agricultural implements exported are given 

 in the official tables under one head, without any attempt to spe- 

 cify the number and value of each machine, it is impossible to 

 ascertain the number or value of the plows exported. The Ames 

 Plow Company have for several years exported about one hun- 

 dred thousand dollars worth annually, and other makers, in the 

 opinion of the revenue officers, export two hundred thousand 

 dollars worth more, which makes the whole value of the plows 

 cxi)orted, three hundred thousand dollars. It is believed that 

 the value of this export might easily be increased ten-fold. 



The plowing of the land under cultivation in the United States 

 requires, according to our estimate, the labor of one million teams 

 of either oxen, mules or horses for eighty days in the year; and 

 we do not think the average value of the men and teams required 

 for this purpose can be reckoned at less than two and an half 

 dollars a day for each plow. This would make the aggregate 

 cost of the plowing in each year to be $20,000,000. 



We have shown in a subsequent chapter, that there is a difl'er- 

 ence of power required to perform the same amount of work by 

 difierent plows, amounting to fort3^-six per cent, as shown by 

 careful trials in England, and to forty-two per cent, according to 

 the trials instituted by this Society in 1850. 



It follows from this, that if the plow having the least draught 

 was brought into universal use, to the exclusion of those which 

 require a greater power, it would reduce the cost of plowing in 

 the United States forty-two per cent, or it would reduce it from 

 $20,000,000 to $11,600,000, leaving $8,400,000 in the pockets of 

 the farmers, as a fund to be applied to the payment of taxes or 

 the improvement of their farms. 



If we suppose that the same number of men and teams were 

 employed as heretofore, then they would be enabled to cultivate 

 an area forty-two per cent greater with the same expenditure of 

 power that they now employ; that is, they would cultivate an 

 area of (113,000,000) one hundred and thirteen millions of acres, 

 without any more expenditure of power than they now do (80,- 

 000,000) eighty millions of acres. 



