POWER AND THE FOOD SUPPLY 287 



now the most promising development in agriculture, will 

 permit of a further reduction in the numbers required to 

 supply food and other materials, and force a greater return 

 from the soil to keep pace with the constant increase in popu- 

 lation. America has taught the world the conservation of 

 human labor by power machinery in manufactures and dis- 

 tribution; she must teach herself the use of power machinery 

 in agriculture or keep more and more of her workmen from 

 their places in the struggle for national commercial supremacy. 



"Every invention which enables mechanical power to sup- 

 plant animal power is a distinct advantage to society," says 

 Doctor Hunt. It is not to be supposed that mechanical power 

 \vilC entirely supplant the animal, even as brute power has 

 never displaced the human muscle. In the history of the 

 human race, man's activities have ever increased with his 

 opportunities. The introduction of mechanical power on the 

 farm will augment man's resources rather than change entirely 

 his sources of motive power. The influence of power on manu- 

 factures and transportation is an indication of what may be 

 expected in agriculture. Not only will production be increased 

 and systematized but farm organization will take on in greater 

 degree the aspect of the factory. Efficient production de- 

 mands large units. Farms which can be operated by mechanical 

 power must continue to grow larger and more centrally con- 

 trolled. Ownership and management will inevitably approach 

 more and more that of the centralized industrial corporation, 

 unless the individuality of the farmer can be maintained by 

 effective cooperation. 



Ten years ago, at the University of Oxford, a lecturer on 

 political economy laid it down as axiomatic that science and 

 invention, the division of labor, the law of diminishing returns, 

 could do little to save human labor on the farm; that the con- 

 ditions of its toil were nearly unalterable, its processes predes- 

 tined to be slow. Yet these few years have seen immense 

 advance, and to-day no forecast can predict the progress of 



