817] Machinery and Production 19 



person engaged in farm work' (*'. e., farmers, planters, 

 overseers, and agricultural laborers), the effectiveness of 

 the average farm worker in 1900 was greater than in 

 1870 by nearly 86 per cent. 1 The data at hand do not 

 appear to admit of any similar showing as between the 

 year 1900 and any date prior to 1870. 



THE GREATER EFFECTIVENESS OF FARM WORKERS WHEN 

 AIDED BY THE USE OF MACHINERY, AS SHOWN BY 

 INVESTIGATIONS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR 



The Thirteenth Annual Report of the Department of 

 Labor gives the results of an extended investigation 

 concerning production by hand and by machine 

 methods, and affords the means for a reliable estimate of 

 the influence of machine power. That portion devoted 

 to agricultural operations shows in detail, for example, 

 how many persons were ordinarily required for the 

 production, by hand or by machine methods, of a given 

 quantity of barley ; what separate operations were 

 necessary in that production, as plowing, sowing, har- 

 rowing, etc.; what time was required for each operation, 

 what tools or machines, if any, or other helps were 

 used, and the money cost of each operation. 



From the summary given on pages 24-25 of that re- 

 port it appears that the man-labor power requisite for 

 the production of thirty bushels of barley by the 

 methods commonly in use in the season of 1829-30, 

 amounted to 63 hours and 35 minutes. The man-labor 

 power required for accomplishing the same result, by 

 the methods commonly in use in the season of 1895-96, 

 is shown to have been only 2 hours and 42.8 minutes. 

 From such data, the barley crop of 1896 being known, 



1 85.8 per cent. The cereal product per worker, as above, in 1870, 

 was 236.5 bushels ; in 1900 it was 439.6 bushels. 



