68 AMERICAN FARMS. 



By the United States census reports of 1880 we find 

 that the capital engaged in mining, mechanics, manufac- 

 turing, and in the production of petroleum in the Union, 

 amounted to ^2,790,000,000, employing 22 per cent, of 

 the industrial population, or 3,838,112 persons, who 

 threw on the market that year a production valued at 

 $5,679,854,599. It is estimated, that of this amount, 

 $3,394,000,000 went into it in the shape of raw material, 

 which would leave $2,285,854,599 to represent the net 

 production for the year, or $595 for each person engaged. 

 Employed in agricultural pursuits were 7,670,493 indi- 

 viduals, or 44 per cent, of the total industrial population, 

 with a capital of $12,602,000,000, whose products — not 

 including increase in value of farm stock — amounted to 

 only $2,213,402,564. 



A more comprehensive estimate made by Mr. J. R. 

 Dodge, Statistician of the Department of Agriculture, 

 gave $3,600,000,000 as the total value of the products of 

 agriculture for the census year ; which amount includes 

 an allowance of $1,000,000,000 for home consumption, 

 giving $473 for each. The farmers' outlay for seeds and 

 other articles consumed in procuring a crop (to say 

 nothing of taxes, insurance, etc.), would average not 

 much less than $100, leaving the average farmers of 

 America (including farm laborers) a net income $220 less 

 than the average manufacturer. It is claimed that farm- 

 ers have been paying as high wages to labor as have 

 been paid by manufacturers, and especially is this the 

 case when compared with the wages paid by the great 

 cotton and iron industries. Then the farmer, with his 

 farm, his capital, and his labor, is receiving a share in the 

 national income reduced in exchange value to very small 

 proportions compared with the manufacturer. Thus we 



