AIT APPEAISAL OF POWER USED OX FAEMS 3 
the cost under 1924 conditions averages about 19 cents per horse- 
power-hour, or close to $3,000,000,000 for the year. The average 
power utilized per year per agricultural worker amounts to about 
1,500 horsepower-hours, which is equivalent to about 2,500 horse- 
power-hours for the average farm. About 80 per cent of this power 
is used directly in the production and marketing of farm crops; the 
remaining 20 per cent is used for miscellaneous operations around 
the farmstead, in the house, in caring for the livestock, and for 
hauling other than that 
required directly for the 
crops. Figure 4 shows the 
approximate amount of 
each kind of power de- 
veloped annually and the 
principal operations by 
which it is utilized. 
The most serious diffi- 
culties encountered in the 
efficient use of power and 
labor in farm work are the 
extreme seasonal demands 
of many of the crops, the 
diversity of the opera- 
tions, the small size of the 
usual power units, and the 
low load factor or small 
percentage of time the 
power unit is used. The 
result is a relatively high 
cost per unit of power 
produced.^ 
Most of the machinery 
now used in agriculture 
has been developed to the 
point were it not only 
saves human labor but in 
most cases T\dU do the work 
considerably better than it 
can be done by hand 
methods. Great credit is 
due the manufacturers of agricultural equipment for these develop- 
ments. 
However, while the machines already developed accomplish the 
work for which they are designed, little scientific study has been 
devoted to the determination of the basic requirements of the opera- 
tions or to ascertaining whether the methods used accomplish the 
results ^yit}l a minimum of power input. The plow, for instance, 
is probably the oldest agricultural tool for which power other than 
human labor is used; yet the fundamental requirements of plow 
Fig. 2.— Workers released from agriculture due to 
improved methods and conditions on farms in 
United States. The shaded portion shows the 
additional .farm workers that would have been 
required to produce the crops raised if the 1850 
methods and conditions had continued to prevail. 
Based on United States census data 
3 Agricxilture has a higher investment per primary horsepower and a lower load factor than any of the 
other industries shown. The present load factor of agriculture is less than 4 per cent, while that of the 
manufacturing industries is close to 15 per cent. 
