24 American Economic Association [822 



Including the crops above considered, the report of 

 the Department of Labor, gives detailed information con- 

 cerning the cost of production, by hand and by machine 

 methods, of twenty-one different crops. The table on the 

 next page gives the results of the several investigations 

 in this particular, arranged in the order of the greatest 

 saving in cost of production by machine as compared 

 with hand methods. 1 



The per cent column of the following table shows 

 that, for the most part, there has been a very great de- 

 crease in the cost of producing these various crops. 

 The median is 39.92 per cent, but this number is clearly 

 too low, for the crops in which machinery is most used 

 are principally in the upper part of the table. 



1 In the production of peas and in both tobacco crops there has 

 been an increase in the cost. This increase is not, however, from the 

 use of machinery in the production of these crops, but rather from 

 the lack of it. In the case of tobacco (unit 22), for example, in 

 which there has been the greatest increase in cost, the hand method 

 production was with the aid of the following : wagon, spades, hoes, 

 rakes, wooden moldboard plows, harrow, turn plow, wooden pegs for 

 setting plants, plow for cultivating, and tobacco knives. The total 

 extent of the machinery used in the production of this crop by ma- 

 chine methods was as follows : plow, harrow, rakes, hoes, disk 

 harrow, drag, wagon and barrels, transplanter, double-shovel plow, 

 tobacco knives, wagon and racks, and screw racket prize. (Thir- 

 teenth Annual Report, Department of Labor, page 464. ) It must be 

 evident at once from a comparison of these items that the difference 

 in machinery cannot account for the difference in cost of production. 

 The cause of the increased cost in the production of tobacco and peas 

 (units 15, 22, and 23) was a higher rate of wages. In the case of peas, 

 wages rose from 62^ cents to $1.00 per day. In the case of tobacco 

 (unit 22), wages rose from 30 cents per day to $20 and $23 per month ; 

 in unit 23, the rise of wages was from 75 cents to $1.00 per day. It 

 will be readily understood that when there is little or no change in 

 the methods of production a rise in the rate of wages must cause a 

 rise in the total cost of production. 



The "hand method" of production, as explained in the report of 

 the department, "should not be construed to mean a method whereby 

 a product is made entirely by the unaided hand and absolutely with- 

 out the use of machines, but rather as the primitive method of pro- 

 duction which was in vogue before the general use of automatic or 

 power machines. " (Thirteenth Annual Report, Department of Labor, 

 p. n.) Similarly, it should be observed, in this connection, that 

 "machine method" does not necessarily imply that machines are 

 used, but only that the work was done by the most approved 

 methods practiced in more recent years. 



For a table of wages under hand and machine methods, see p. 60. 



