Miscellaneous. 



248 



[March, 1012. 



accordance with its necessity. There is 

 nothing peculiar about soils in Europe 

 that gives the great yield per acre there 

 and prevents its possibility in the 

 United States. On the contrary, there 

 is every reason to believe that the appli- 

 cation of the same methods would pro- 

 duce just as large crops here as abroad. 



One of the great reasons for discour- 

 agement felt by many who have written 

 on this subject is found in the movement 

 of the population from farm to city. 

 This has reached such a point that the 

 urban population is now 46 per cent, of 

 the total, while the rural population is 

 but 54 per cent., counting as urban all 

 who live in cities exceeding 2,500 inhabi- 

 tants. This movement has been per- 

 sistent, and has made it very difficult 

 for the farmers to secure adequate agri- 

 cultural labour, with an increase in the 

 prioe of labour which naturally, follows 

 such a condition. Still we ought to 

 realize that enormous advance in the 

 machinery used on the farm has reduced 

 the necessity for a great number of farm 

 hands on each farm. 



Mr. Holmes, of the Department of 

 Agriculture, in the Yearbook of that 

 department for 1899, points out that 

 between the years 1853 and 1894 the time 

 of human labour required to produce 

 one bushel of corn on an average declined 

 from 4 hours and 34 minutes to 41 

 minutes, and the cost of the human 

 labour required to produce this bushel 

 declined from 35| cents to 10| cents. 

 Between 1830 and 1896 the time of human 

 labour required for the production of a 

 bushel of wheat was reduced from 3 

 hours to 10 minutes, while the price of 

 the labour required for this purpose 

 declined from 17£ cents to 3$ cents. 

 Between 1860 and 1894 the time of 

 human labour required for the produc- 

 tion of a ton of hay was reduced from 

 85£ hours to 11 hours and 34 minutes, 

 and the cost of labour per ton was 

 reduced from $3 06 to $1-29. 



In 1899 the calculation made with 

 respect to the reduction in the cost of 

 labour for the production of seven crops 

 of that year over the old-tioie manner 

 of production in the fifties and sixties 

 shows it to have bpen $681 000,000 for 

 one year. But while it is possible to say 

 that there may be in the future improve- 

 ments in machinery which will reduce 

 the number of necessary hands on the 

 farm, it is quite certain that in this 

 regard the prospect of economy in 

 labour for the future is not to be com- 

 pared with that which has been effected 

 in the last thirty years. Hence we must 

 regard the question of available popul- 



ation and available labour in that 

 population for the cultivation of the 

 fields as an important consideration. 

 My impression from an examination of 

 the figures is that the change in this 

 last decade from farm to city has not 

 been as great in its percentage as it was 

 in previous decades, and, if this be true, 

 it indicates that there is in the present 

 situation an element that will help to 

 cure the difficulty. Farm prices are 

 increasing rapidly, and the profits of 

 farming are becoming apparently much 

 more certain and substantial. While 

 the acreage of the improved land only 

 increased 65,000,000, or 15 per cent., 

 and the total acreage only 4 per 

 cent., the value of the farms in 

 money increased from $17,000,000,000 to 

 $35,000,000,000 in ten years, an enor- 

 mous advance. This, of course, was 

 due somewhat to the investment of 

 additional money in the improvement 

 of land and somewhat to the increase 

 in the supply of gold, which had the 

 effect of advancing all prices, but the 

 chief cause for the advance is in the 

 increase in the price of farm products 

 at the farm. So great is this increase 

 that the value of the average farm 

 has now gone from $2,895 to $5,470, while 

 the average value per acre has increased 

 from $19-81 to $39 69. In addition to 

 this, comforts of farm life have been 

 so greatly added to in the last ten years 

 by the rural free delivery, the suburban 

 electric railway, the telephone, and the 

 automobile, that there is likely in the 

 next ten years to be a halt in this 

 change toward the city, and more people 

 in proportion are likely to engage in 

 gainful occupation on the farm than has 

 heretofore been the case. Such an effect 

 would be the natural result of the actual 

 economic operation of the increase in 

 the value of the farm product, and the 

 increase in the certainty of farming 

 profits. 



It is the business of the country, in 

 so far as it can direct the matter, to 

 furnish the means by which this econo- 

 mic force shall exert itself along the 

 lines of easiest and best increase of pro- 

 duction. Of course the Government, by 

 furnishing assistance in irrigation, in- 

 creases the amount of tillable land, and 

 the Stat es if they undertake the drainage 

 of swamp lands, will do the same thing. 

 The cost of such improvements will be 

 considerable, and will affect the farming 

 profit, but the result generally in such 

 cases is to yield such great crops per 

 acre that the farmer can well afford to 

 pay interest on the increased invest- 

 ment. Increased acreage from any other 

 source is likely to be, however, in more 



