THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



49 



farm machinery investigations and experiments is 

 greater than the average agriculturalist imagines. Our 

 prominent authorities on plant breeding state that the 

 production of plants can be increased 10 per cent by 

 better breeding, without altering the other conditions 

 of production, and that these other conditions of pro- 

 duction can also be increased in nearly like amount by 

 better farming; but that the increase by better breed- 

 ing can be had at a much less cost than the increase 

 from better farming. From experiments already con- 

 ducted, the indications are that the production of plants 

 can be increased about 20 per cent by improving the 

 accuracy of planters and seeders so that the plants may 

 be distributed uniformly over the field, and this at very 

 little cost except to about twenty manufacturers of these 

 machines. 



It will require but little thought to convince any 

 one that every agricultural college should have a course 



in 1894 this labor was reduced to 11% hours, or from 

 a cost of $3 in labor, to '$1.29. The agricultural imple- 

 ments in the United States saved in human labor in 

 1899, the sum of $681,471,827. The American farmers 

 of today with less than one-third the labor of the coun- 

 try, produced enough food to support not only them- 

 selves, but the other 67 per cent of people living in the 

 cities, and exported farm products during the year 1904 

 to the value of $960,000,000. The American farmers 

 buy annually $100,000,000 worth of implements, and 

 the total value of the implements and machinery on the 

 farms in this country is $761,261,550. In no other 

 country is such extensive use made of farm machinery, 

 and the scarcity of farm laborers will tend to increase 

 its use in the future rather than otherwise. 



It is also quite apparent that experiments with new 

 varieties of implements in the semi-arid regions of the 

 West will be the means of extending the cultivated area 



A Lateral Canal, and Land Irrigated by the Spokane Canal Company. 



of instruction in the construction and use of farm ma- 

 chnery. This country is the largest manufacturer and 

 user of farm machinery, and it is largely because of this 

 that we have become the greatest agricultural country. 



To give an idea of the vast sums of money that 

 are invested in farm implements, take for example, the 

 following five States: Iowa has $57,960,000 invested; 

 New York $56,006,000; Pennsylvania $50,917,240; 

 Illinois $44,977,310, and Ohio $36,354,150. 



The success of agricultural pursuits depends pri- 

 marily upon the accomplishment of the largest possible 

 results at a minimum cost. For this reason agricultural 

 implements are bound to become more and more impor- 

 tant, because mainly through them can the farmer 

 reduce the cost of production. To illustrate this it is 

 only necessary to state that in 1830 it took over three 

 hours labor to raise one bushel of wheat, while in 1896 

 in took ten minutes, making a difference in the cost of 

 labor in one bushel of wheat, between 17% cents and 

 3% cents. In 1850 the labor represented in a bushel of 

 corn was four and one-half hours, while in 1894 it had 

 been reduced to forty-one minutes. In 1860 the labor 

 in one ton of hay in bales represented 351/2 hours, while 



very materially, by the conservation of soil moisture, 

 and that with drought-resisting crops and dry farming 

 methods of soil cultivation, millions of acres which are 

 now a total waste will become productive. 



The extra cultivation needed in this method of 

 farming requires motive power other than horses for 

 propelling the implements, and experiments ought to 

 be conducted to determine the possibilities of utilizing 

 steam and other forms of motive power instead of 

 horses. In some sections of the country where steam is 

 used as motive power instead of horses, it is claimed 

 that from forty to eighty acres per day can be plough; " 

 seeded and harrowed in one operation, and that r , 

 varies from 30 to 60 cents an acre. Witj ee ; ct m " 

 universal use of this method of soil c~\]in Arizona," 

 cost of production will be greatly re^Keclamation Serv- 



The subject of power for the Extended trip through 

 in the transition period. The ^ seyeral of whkh 

 rapid favor as a farm motor ; the charni and myst ery 

 greatly extended in doing nvork is going on appeals 

 work on the farm. No defined the history of this coun- 

 tests, is available from whicl 15 b , e . en inhabited at differ- 

 may know the cost of 



