POWER AND THE FOOD SUPPLY 277 



Even before 1900, every possible human task had been shifted 

 to a machine drawn by animals. McCormick and his reaper 

 had made three horses do the work of forty men with sickles. 

 More horses were necessary, larger horses and machines of 

 greater capacity the natural evolution. While two 1000- 

 pound horses were the average team in the Central states in 

 1870, three 1400 to 1500 pound horses are now employed, with 

 an increase of over 100 per cent, in power under the direction of 

 one man. Under the never-ceasing cry for power the manipu- 

 lation of animals by a single driver quickly approached 

 the feasible limit of four horses in the Central states, or six 

 in the great wheat belt, and with the new century the farm 

 stood awaiting the coming of mechanical power. 



The last decade has been most remarkable in the coming of 

 greater power to the farm. The number of farm horses and 

 mules of all ages was 25,163,000 on January 1, 1900 accord- 

 ing to the United States Department of Agriculture an 

 increase of 61 per cent, over the estimate for January 1, 1900. 

 The value of both horses and mules per head had more than 

 doubled, notwithstanding the millions of potential horsepower 

 sold upon the farm in mechanical motors. A few thousand 

 automobiles were the entire output in 1900; now a single 

 manufacturer estimates his annual sales to farmers at 800,000 

 horsepower. Probably 12,000 farm tractors with 700,000 

 horsepower will go this year to swell the total of mechanical 

 power on the farm. The stationary internal-combustion en- 

 gine, lifting the minor burdens from which the animal could 

 not release the farm worker, is practically a thing of this 

 decade. In the last four years the size of such engines has in- 

 creased from an average of 4 to an average of 6 horsepower. 

 Seventy-five thousand new engines this year will further 

 relieve the drudgery of farm work. Stationary, steam, elec- 

 tric, wind, and water motors will easily swell the total of mechan- 

 ical power on American farms to two million horsepower. 



