INTRODUCTION. xv 



patentee 8117,000 in a single year for the use of a patent-right on an agricultural machine which others 

 were making at the same time by contract with the owner. 



From an article upon agricultural implements, published in the annual report of the Department 

 of Agriculture, by the Hon. M. L. Dunlap, of Illinois, we are pleased to sec that invention in this 

 branch has not been stationary during the war. Among the principal competitors for public favor in 

 prairie farming, to which his remarks chiefly relate, arc the rotary spader with horse-power, which 

 promises to be more effective than the steam-plough with traction engines, .the latter having thus far 

 proved a failure in moist or cultivated soils; the steel-clipper plough, with polished cast-steel mold-board; 

 the tWo-horse cultivator or plough ; the iron roller; the hand sowing-machine; reaping and mowing- 

 machines, separate or uuconibincd ; the sulky, wire-tooth horse hay-rake; the horse hay-fork or patent 

 pitchfork; the horse-power thresher with straw-carrier and bagging apparatus attached; the drain- 

 plough; the portable farm mill and the sorghum mill. But the statistics of the eighth census will 

 measure the public appreciation of these and other new productions of American skill, and their 

 influence upon the rural economy of the nation. 



The cash value of farms under actual cultivation in the United States in 1850 was 83,271,575,420. 

 Their value had risen in 18GO to 86,045,045,007, an increass of 103 per cent, in ten years. The 

 amount of capital invested in implements and machinery for their cultivation in 1800 was 8240,118,141, 

 having in ten years increased 894,530,503, or more than sixty-three per cent. Thus, the fixed capital 

 of the agriculturists in farms, and in farm tools and machinery, both increased in a ratio much more 

 accelerated than that of the population, which during the same time augmented at the rate of only 

 thirty-five and one half per centum. If we suppose the rural population to have increased in the same 

 proportion with the whole, and the productiveness of the soil to have remained unchanged, we shall 

 perceive that an immense increment of productive force accrued to the nation within ten years in the 

 mechanical appliances of agriculture alone. Taking the aggregate number of acres of improved lands 

 in the United States to be, in round numbers, one hundred and sixty-three millions, as shown by the 

 returns, it would thus appear that the average value of farm implements and machinery for each farm 

 of one hundred acres is only about 8150, which is probably less than one third the sum that could be 

 so invested with profit, at least in the older settled States. The greatest deficiency in this respect is 

 found in New England, where it is only 81 34 per acre, probably due to the ruggedness of the country. 

 In the middle States the value of machinery employed is 82 07 per acre; in the western States 81 50, 

 and in the southern 81 48 per acre. Notwithstanding the evidence, therefore, of an improvement in 

 the quantity and quality of implements, and infercntially of a better system of farming, there is mani 

 festly room for further improvements in this respect, and ample encouragement to our agricultural 

 machinists to supply the growing demand. 



The production of labor-saving machinery, as will be shown by the tables of manufactures, was 

 still going on to the amount of 817,487,900 in 1800, which was likewise an increase of nearly 150 

 per cent, over the value made in 1850, when it reached the sum of 83,842,011. This was exclusive 

 of all articles made on the farm, which was formerly considerable, but is yearly decreasing as regular 

 manufactories and depots for the sale of farm implements are multiplied, and their cost diminished. It 

 also excludes cotton-gins, scythes, hoes, shovels, spades, forks, and some other articles of hardware, 

 wagons, carts, and wheelbarrows, the value of which amounted to 811,790,941, and might appropriately 

 be added to the above table. 



Of the total product in I860, nearly two millions in value was made in New England, being an 

 increase of about sixteen per cent, upon the returns of 1850. 



The middle States increased their production from less than two and a quarter to upward of five 

 and tliree-quarter millions, or 134.2 per cent. The great States of New York and Pennsylvania 

 returned, the one 333, and the other 200 establishments devoted to this branch of manufacture, and 

 the increase in their product was 172.7 and 85.5 per cent., respectively, over the business of 1850. 



