853] Machinery and Labor 55 



acres; in 1900, 102.5 acres. The average acreage in 

 all farm crops, per person cultivating such crops, 1 was, 

 in 1880, 40.6 acres; in 1890, 53.9 acres; in 1900, 62.4 

 acres. 



Presenting these data in form to show the relative 

 rates of increase, we have the following : 



Base 1880 1890 igoo 



Average acreage in all farm 



crops per farm 64.4 = 100 . . . 133.9 *59 2 



Average acreage in all farm 



crops per person cultivating 



same 40.6 100 . . . 132.8 . . . 153.7 



The tendency in machine using states, toward a 

 greater crop acreage per farm and per person, is strong 

 and unmistakable. 2 



The persons who cultivated these crops are classfied 

 as follows : 3 



1900 1890 1880 



Agricultural laborers* 612,418 . . 359,894 . . 352,565 



Farmers, planters and overseers . 1,056,237 . . 1,091,867 . . 828,800 



Totals 1,668,655 M5i,76i 1,181,365 



Presented from the basis of a common denominator, 

 these data show rates of increase as follows : 



1 Agricultural laborers, farmers, planters and overseers. 



2 " With the coming of the great harvesters, the planters, culti- 

 vators, and scores of other farm mechanisms there was an opportunity 

 to double and quadruple the crops and the farms gradually increased 

 from ten and twenty acres to one and two hundred." Geo. E. Walsh : 

 " Machinery in Agriculture," in Cassiers Mag., Vol. 19, p. 139. 



3 See table of absolute numbers, p. 100. 



4 This includes 4,264 garden and nursery laborers in the returns for 

 1900 and probably one-half as many of the same in the returns for 

 1890 and for 1880 ; but they were not separately reported by the Tenth 

 and Eleventh Censuses, and hence cannot be discarded. 



