825] Machinery and Production 27 



is 1895 a difference of forty-five years. Surely it will 

 not be too much to say that during the last half of the 

 nineteenth century the cost of production of these 

 crops was reduced by one-half. If we take into account 

 the decreased cost to the farmer of food and lodging for 

 his hired workmen and of the decreased cost of storage 

 room for grain in the straw, then the total saving must 

 appear to be even greater than this. 1 



FLUCTUATIONS IN QUANTITY OF PRODUCT 

 The use of machinery in the production of agri- 

 cultural products, as in the production of manufactures, 

 tends to diminish the fluctuations in supply. Capital in 

 any form, cannot, ordinarily, be diverted from the pro- 

 duction for which it was designed, without more or less 

 waste. If, t for^xampl^^a farmer wishes to change from 

 producing wheat to^pVpoucing potatoes, he must sell his 

 reaper at a sacrifice. 1 / The difficulty in making such 

 changes operates against great and sudden changes from 



1 "Toascertain the amount of saving precisely isdifficult ; but looking 

 through the successive stages of management and seeing that the 

 owner of a stock farm in the preparation of his land by using lighter 

 ploughs is able to cast off one horse in three ; and by adopting other 

 simple tools to dispense altogether with the great part of his plough- 

 ing ; that in the culture of crops by the various drills, horsepower 

 cau be partly reduced ; the seed otherwise wanted, partly saved ; and 

 the use of manures greatly economized ; while the horse hoe replaces 

 the hoe at one half the expense ; that at harvest the American reaper 

 can effect nearly thirty men's work ; while the Scotch cart replaces 

 the old English wagon with exactly half the horses ; that in prepar- 

 ing corn for food the steam threshing machine saves two thirds of our 

 former expense ; and in preparing food for stock the turnip- cutter, at 

 an outlay of is., adds 8s. a head in one winter to the value of sheep ; 

 lastly, that in the indispensable but costly operation of drainage, the 

 materials have been reduced from 8os. to 15 s., to one fifth namely of 

 their former cost ; it seems to be proved that the efforts of agricultural 

 mechanists have been so far successful, as in all these main branches 

 of farming labour taken together, to effect a saving on outgoings or 

 else an increase of incomings of not less than one- half." Quoted 

 from Pusey's report on Agricultural Implements in the Exhibit of 

 , by Hearn, "Plutology," page 171. 



