The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1878-06-12
Improvement. i'm Farming.

Although the application Of labor saw
ing machines to agriculture IS far behind
the application of such agencies to the
mechanic arts and manufactures, still it
is wonderful how much more work can
be done, and how much more produce
can be raised by the farmer of to-day
than by his father forty or fifty years ago.
1t was stated in paper read before the
Social Science Association at Cincinnati
on the patent system Of the United States,
by Mr.. Carroll d. Wright, that fifty
years ago, when corn was planted bv
hand, two acres a day was good work
for one man now an Illinois farmer with
a check-sower and horses can plant fifLeen
acres day, doing the work Of seven
men under the old system. Before the
invention Of corn-shellers, Smelling was
done by hand, and three to five bushels
a day was a mans work now two men
with a shelter driven by farm engine
can turn out l 800 bushels day at a
cost Of one-half cent a bushel, Seed
sowing is now done by machines at the
rate Of twenty acres a day, and much
more evenly and thoroughly done than
in the old days of broadcast hand sowing.
In lS45 the Mccormick reaper was first
introduced, and $50 of them built at
Cincinnati, but it did not come into gen
eral use till 1852. 1t enables one man
and team to perform the work Of seven
Graders. But even the reaper did not
bind the grain into sheaves, and up TO
four years ago the farmer had to pay
binders SO a day. In 1873 the first self
binder was introduced, and now a com
bined reaper and binder, drawn by a
pair of horses, and a man, will cut and
bind twelve to fifteen acres of grain per
day, doing the work of twelve men. Less
than fifty years ago cotton was cleaned
that is the fibre separated from the seed
by hand at the rate of four or five
pounds Of cleaned cotton to the hand pei
| day. Now, with a gin, it is cleaned al
the rate of 1000 pounds day. Twenty
years ago the rule was for one man with
a horse and plow to cultivate twenty acre:
| of corn now the rule IS for one man
with a sulky cultivator drawn by a pair
| Of horses to take care of eighty acres
In 1870 there were 6, 900 900 persons re
ported engaged in agriculture in the
| United States, and the product of then
| labor, with the aid Of machinery, was
| 287 100000 bushels wheat 761, 900, 0OC
bushels corn; $4,000, 900 bushels oats
| 100000 bushels rye; 29,761, 900 bush
els barley; 8, 100000 bales cotton; p,
| 600, 900 pounds fax; 2,746 tons hemp
u, 316, 900 tons hay; -, 635, 900 pounds
rice; 262, 1857 900 pounds tobacco; l64,-
100000 bushels potatoes; and smaller
amounts of other crops But if this i'm
mense agricultural product had been
raised entirely by the slow and feeble
processes in use fifty years ago, it would
have required 25,000,000 persons, in
stead Of only 5000, 600.
Our agriculture possesses one great
advantage over our manufactures which
saves it from the results of over produc-
ton 1t has foreign market for all the
surplus it can yield. We cannot eat any
more bread now than we ate twenty
years ago, although one man can produce
four or five times as mnch; but we can
always find a foreign market for what
we do not ourselves cOnsume--and this
saves the farming interest from the
break down which excessive production
brings to manufactures. Were it not
for this foreign market, we would haye
to break up our farm machinery and 90
back to the old hand methods, to pre-
vent the land from being glutted with
unconsumed produce.