224 



Farming in the United States. 



1900 does not fully represent the same implements and 

 machines. 



Tables are given showing the prices of the various imple- 

 ments at the above-mentioned dates, wherever practicable. 

 No totals can be given, but certain conclusions may, never- 

 theless, be drawn. The most conspicuous feature is the 

 enormous decline in the retail price from i860 to 1895, in 

 spite of the gain in efficiency, durability, lightness, and other 

 improvements. From 1895 to 1900 there was reported from 

 many establishments an increase in prices. This is considered 

 to be partly abnormal, due to the depression prevailing about 

 1895 and the business revival about 1897. 



Some indication of the contrast between farming as it was 

 practised in America half a century ago and as it may be 

 carried on now with the advantage of labour-saving machinery 

 and with the aid of the implements, materials, and processes 

 contributed by science, is also reproduced from a report on 

 hand and machine labour issued by the United States Depart- 

 ment of Labour in 1898. 



As regards wheat cultivation and harvesting, the com- 

 parison relates to the years 1830 and 1896. The use of steam 

 as a substitute for horse-power in ploughing, harvesting, and 

 threshing wheat has not materially, it is stated, contributed 

 to economy, except from a saving due to the elimination of 

 animal power, so the more common power supplied by horses 

 is selected for comparison. In the United States the amount 

 of human labour now required to produce a bushel of wheat 

 is, on an average, put at only ten minutes, whereas in 1830 

 the time was 3 hours 3 minutes. During this interval the 

 cost of the human labour required to produce this bushel 

 declined from about 8Jd. to ifd. 



In the contrast thus presented, the heavy clumsy plough of 

 the day was used in 1830 ; the seed was sown by hand and 

 was harrowed into the ground by drawing bushes over it ; 

 the grain was cut with sickles, hauled to a barn, and some- 

 time before the following spring was threshed with flails ; the 

 winnowing was done with a sheet attached to rods, on which 

 the grain was placed with a shovel and then tossed up and 

 down by two men until the wind had blown out the chaff. In 



