The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1878-08-01
9be Tarn1.
improvements in Farming.

Although the application of la
bor-saving machines to agriculture
is far behind the application OF such
agencies to the mechanic arts and
manufacturers, still it is wonderful
how much more work can be done,
and how much more prednce can
be raised by the farmer of to-day
than by his father forty or fifty
years ago. 1t was stated in a paper
read before the Social Science asso-
citation of Cincinnati on the patent
system of the United States by Mr..
Carroll ID. Wright, that fifty years
ago, when corn was planted by
ham, two acres a day was good
work for one man; now an Illinois
farmer with a check-sower and
horses can plant fifteen acres a day,
doing the work of seven men under
the old system. Before the inven-
ton Of corn-shellers, shelllng was
done by hand, and three to five
bushels a day vas IA mans work;
now two men with a shelter driven
by a farm engine cal turn out l.
800 bushels a day at a cost OF one
half cent a bushel. Seed-sOwlng
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 broad
cast hand-sowing. La 1915 the
Mccormick reaper was first intro
duced, and $50 Of them built at
Cincinnati, but 1t did not come
into general use till 1852. 1t ena-
bles 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 three dollars a day. In
1873 the first self-binder was intro
duced, and now a combined 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 every day. Now,
with a gin, it is cleaned at the rate
of four thousand pounds a day.
Twenty years ago the rule was for
one man with a horse and pillow to
cultivate twenty acres of corn; o
the rule is for one man with a sulky
~cultivator drawn by a pair of hor-
ses to take care of eighty acres. In
1870 there were 5000, 900 persons
reported engaged in agriculture in
the United States and the product
of their labor with aid of machinery
was 2S7, SOC, 900 bushels wheat,
761, 600, 900 bushels corn 1882, 0O0,-
900 bushels oats $1,000, 900 bush
els rye 30, 7G1, 900 bushels barley;
5000, 600 bales cotton ; $4,000, 900
pounds flax; II, TAG tons hemp
27,316,OOO tons hay 73,G35,OO0
pounds rice 262, 135, 900 pounds
tobacco /; 164, OOO, 600 bushels pota-
toes and smaller amounts of other
crops. But if this immense agri-
cultural product had been raised
entirely by the slow and feeble pro-
cesses in use fifty years ago, it
would have required $4,000, 900
persons, instead of only 5000, 900.
Our agriculture possesses one
great advantage I'VE u manufac-
lures which saves it from the result
of over production. 1t has a fol-
eign 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 us much /; but we
can always find a soreign market
for what we do not ourselves con-
sume-and this saves the farming
interest from the breakdown which
excessive production brings to
manufactures. Were it not for
this foreign market, we would have
to break up II farm machinery
anc go back to the old hand meth
DDS, to prevent the land from being
glutted with unconsumed produce.