clxiv INTRODUCTION. 



INFLUENCE OF RAILROADS UPON AGRICULTURE. 



The first impression made on the popular mind by any great improvement in machinery or loco 

 motion, after the admission of their beneficial effect, is that they will, in some way or other, diminish 

 the demand for labor or for other machinery. Hence it was that in Europe the introduction of printing 

 was denounced on account of its supposed tendency to diminish the employment of writers or copyists, 

 and the associations of individuals against its employment, similar to the opposition subsequently mani 

 fested to the use of labor-saving machinery in manufactures. It was long before this prejudice could 

 be overthrown, but the subject is now much better understood. It is now established, as a general 

 principle, that machines facilitating labor increase the amount of labor required. This is done chiefly 

 by cheapening the products of labor so that more can be consumed, and ultimately more labor employed. 

 The introduction of cotton and wool machinery was followed by outbreaks of workmen against ma 

 chinery ; yet nothing is more certain than that hundreds of thousands of men and women are employed 

 in the manufacture of cotton who would not have been if machinery had not cheapened cotton cloth so 

 that it could be introduced into general use. So it might be assumed that the introduction of sewing- 

 machines would at once throw many sewing women out of employment ; but such is not the fact. Many 

 more sewing women are now employed than there were before the sewing-machine was introduced. 

 In the same way the influence of railroads was at first very much misconceived ; even among civil 

 engineers the vast power of steam and of cohesion on the tracks were not understood. On the com 

 pletion of the Liverpool and Manchester railway, some of the ablest engineers laid it down as a settled 

 principle that railroads would not be able to carry heavy freights, and their business must be confined 

 to the carriage of passengers. It was also considered impracticable to ascend over fifty feet per mile 

 with ordinary locomotives; as a consequence of this theory inclined planes were for several years made 

 wherever the grade was over fifty feet. If this practice had continued, it must obviously have proved a 

 great obstruction to the carriage of heavy freight. Time and inventive genius have happily overcome 

 all these difficulties; but still, in this, as in other cases, there was an idea that the transportation of 

 agricultural products would result in diminishing the number of horses, wagoners, and steamboats. In 

 deed, this would seem a natural, if not a necessary, effect of transporting immense quantities of agri 

 cultural produce by a machinery which did not before exist. The result, however, proves precisely the 

 contrary. Horses have multiplied more rapidly since the introduction of locomotives than they did 

 before ; and even steamboats, on such rivers as the Ohio and the Mississippi, where the recently con 

 structed railroads have been in direct competition with them, have continued to increase almost without 

 interruption. Before we look at the general results of railroads on the agricultural interests, we will 

 glance at their incidental connexion with the other means of transportation. Take, for example, the 

 increase of horses in connexion with the increase of railroads. 



The following is the number and increase of horses in the last twenty years, including mules and asses : 



No. of horses. Increase. 



In 1840 4,335,669 



In 1850 *4, 896,050 12 per cent. 



In 1860 *7,400,322 51 per cent. 



Three-fourths of all the miles of railroad have been made since 1850; and we see that since then 

 the increase of horses has been the greatest. If we pursue this inquiry a little further, we shall find 

 that horses have increased the most in those States in which the greatest extent of railroads has been 

 made since 1850. Take, for example, the number of horses employed in agriculture and for other 

 purposes in the five great States of the west: 



Exclusive of 1,185,514 uot employed in agriculture. 



