New York AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 3a) 
‘second period over what it was in the first period and the average 
_ yield of the third period was within 8.8 per cent of what it was in 
the first; and this diminished yield is perhaps largely due to less - 
careful cultivation which the low prices of farm products seemed 
in many cases to excuse if it did not justify. 
But if we examine the table we shall see that the average | 
market values have greatly depreciated, the five crops already 
mentioned having fallen, during the second period, in their 
average market value to 75.6 per cent of what it was in the first 
“period, and during the last period having dropped still lower to 
an average of 67.6 per cent of what these crops sold for during 
the first period. 
. The average daily wages of farm laborers in thirty-six States 
for ten years have been as follows: Year 1879, wages 94 cents; 
year 1882, wages $1.07; year 1885, wages $1.05; year 1888, wages 
$1.06. | 
From the above it appears that the wages of farm laborers have 
_ remained nearly the same during the past ten years. 
This remarkable shrinkage in the market values of agricultural 
products, while the cost of production remained practically con- 
stant, so far as the cost of farm labor goes, will alone account for 
the general complaint that farming has ceased to be profitable 
under existing conditions. 
But in this connection it must not be forgotten that the pro- 
ductive power of manual labor upon the farm has been enor- 
mously increased during the past quarter of a century through the 
introduction.upon the farm of labor-saving machinery. of every 
description; and but for these appliances it would often appear 
impossible that the work of the farm at, present could be 
accomplished. 
While, therefore, the actual cost of‘manual labor remains prac- 
tically the same, the results of such labor aided by all these 
mechanical appliances have been greatly increased, at the same 
time introducing a new item into the cost of production, viz, 
interest and wear and tear of all these implements of acuanae 
_ The following table gives in column first the average value of 
the leading farm crops of the-State for the last twenty-six years 
according to the Report of the Department of Agriculture. 
The second column gives the number of bushels, or pounds of 
each crop which could have been bought for ten dollars, this 
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