12 BULLETIN 627, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



reducing the cost of an operation, but from the cost figures given 

 below it will be seen that the principal effect of improved harvesting 

 machinery has been to increase to a very large extent the amount of 

 work which one man can accomplish in a day with the assistance of 

 horse-labor and machines over what was formerly done by man-labor 

 alone. 



For example, the average cost of cutting with a binder, as shown 

 in Table V, is $1,022 per acre, and the average cost of shocking, as 

 shown in Table VI, is 20.5 cents, or a total of $1.23 for the two opera- 

 tions. In the Transactions of the New York State Agricultural 

 Society, volume 10 (1850)* page 550, the cost of cradling and binding 

 (and the shocking was probably done at the same time) is given as 

 70 cents per acre on a 20-bushel yield. In the Report of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture for 1853, page 143, the cost of cradling, bind- 

 ing, and shocking an acre of wheat, where the yield was also about 

 20 bushels, is given as 75 cents per acre. 



In other words, the cost of cutting, binding, and shocking wheat to- 

 day, with an average yield of 16 bushels per acre, would be slightly 

 less than 8 cents per bushel, whereas in the cases just mentioned it was 

 a little under 4 cents per bushel. The average farm price per bushel 

 for wheat during the 10 years 1906-1915 was about 87 cents (see 

 United States Department of Agriculture Yearbook for 1915), so it 

 will be seen that the cost of harvesting in recent years has represented 

 about one-eleventh of the selling price of the crop, whereas when hand 

 methods were used the cost of harvesting represented less than one- 

 thirtieth of the selling price. The cost of harvesting to-day, there- 

 fore, represents a greater percentage of the selling price of the crop 

 than it did when the old hand methods were used. However, to-day 

 two men (one shocking), with three or four horses, will cut, bind, 

 and shock about eight times as much wheat as two men cutting with 

 a cradle and binding by hand. It should be borne in mind, of course, 

 that the price for labor at the time cradles were used was considerably 

 less than at present. To make a direct comparison of the cost of 

 the two methods the same price for labor should be used in both 

 cases. If man labor was worth $2 per day (the figure which has been 

 used in the computations herein), the cost per acre by the hand 

 methods would be approximately $1.60 as against $1.23 with the 

 binder, where the yield was 16 bushels per acre. 



It is also interesting to compare the amount of work done per 

 day per horse with that accomplished by one man using the old hand 

 methods. By Table I it will be seen that the acres cut per horse 

 in one day varied from about 3 to 4J acres. To cradle, bind, and 

 shock 1 acre per day where the jdeld was about 20 bushels was a 

 fair or average day's work for one man; a good, experienced hand 



