276 POWER AND THE PLOW 



the century. By 1850 the percentage of rural population had 

 decreased to 90, and the labor of three farm families sufficed 

 to provide themselves and two others with food and raw 

 materials for clothes. 



^According to tCe Twelfth Census Report, 1850 marked the 

 close of that period in American agriculture when the only 

 farm implements and machinery, other than the wagon, cart, 

 and cotton gin, were those which might be called the imple- 

 ments of hand [production. Then came the era ^ffarm 

 machinery, and producjjc/a during the first half century was over- 

 shadowed. ByTjJtH) two farm families were not only able to 

 support three others by their excess products, butjtheir_XDorts 

 to jpjgignjx>untries enabled the nation to maintain an imhpfl.r<j- 

 of balance of trade. Systematic and vigorous use of animal 

 power and machines for opening up new lands, for better tillage 

 of the old, and for more effective preparation of products for 

 market, put the United States in a half century in the front 

 rank of nations. America has taught the world to save human 

 labor by the use of machinery and power on the farm. 



The American farmer, consciously or unconsciously, has 

 recognized the value of power. Despite the lessening percent- 

 age of men working on the farm, every census except that of 

 1870 has shown a larger percentage of increase in the number 

 of farm horses and mules than in the total population of city 

 and country combined. By the middle of the century the 

 ox had been practically discarded in favor of the more rapid 

 horse. By the end of another half century each farm laborer 

 had doubled the weight of his products. Two and a half times 

 as many men were producing five times as much gross return. 

 Strangely enough, but logically, this increase parallels the 

 increase hi animal power. Over four times as many work 

 animals were used in 1900 as in 1850, and no less authority 

 than Dr. Thomas F. Hunt attributes to the modern work 

 animal, as a result of intelligent breeding, 25 per cent, greater 

 efficiency than to the average of sixty years ago. 



