but a few manifestations of the spread of scientific knowledge
among the farming population of the United States. Nearly
every county has some sort of agricultural society; in 1899
there were about 1500 of these organizations, some of which,
especially those holding annual fairs, received state aid.
With the improvement in technical processes of production
came the conquest of the arid regions of the western states.
Irrigation was first employed in the west by the Mormons in
1847; but as late as 1870 only about 20,000 acres had been
irrigated. In 1880 the irrigated area was approximately
1,000,000 acres, and in the decade from 1889 to 1899 it
increased from 3,631,381 to 7,539,545 acres, a gain of
107.6%. By 1902 there had been a still further increase to
9,478,852 acres, a gain of 25.7% in three years. As many
of the streams available for irrigation purposes lie within
more than one state, the control of water supply is a proper
matter for federal jurisdiction, and in June 1902 Congress
provided for an extensive system of irrigation works in
thirteen states and three territories. The cost of the work
is defrayed from the proceeds of the sales of government
lands within the states and territories affected by the
act. The measure is not paternalistic; the settlers on the
lands, which are divided into farms of not less than 40 nor
more than 160 acres, are required to make annual payments to
the government in proportion to the water service they have
received, until the original cost of the works has been
met. The first of these works, the so-called Truckee-Carson
project, of Nevada, was completed in June 1905, and at the
end of that year eight projects, in as many different states,
were under construction; bids had been received for three
more, and the seven others had received the approval of the
secretary of the interior. With these initial undertakings
it was estimated that 1,000,859 acres could be reclaimed.
In addition to supplying the soils with water, means have
been found of ridding them of their alkali, or of rendering
it harmless; and this is an element of reclamation hardly
less important than irrigation itself. A third step in the
reclamation of desert lands is arid farming--that is, the
adapting to the soils of crops that require a minimum amount of
moisture, and the utilization, to the fullest possible extent,
of the meagre amount of rainfall in the region. Experiments
conducted in this direction in Utah produced promising results.
The development of farming machinery has kept pace with the
general progress in scientific agriculture. Although numerous
patents were issued for such machinery before 1850, its use, with
the exception of the cotton gin, was very restricted before that
date. Even iron ploughs were not in general use until 1842,
and a really scientific plough was practically unknown before
1870. Thirty years later the large farms of the Pacific
states were ploughed, harrowed and sowed with wheat in a
single operation by fifty-horse-power traction engines drawing
ploughs, harrows and press drills. Since 1850 there has
been a transition from the sickle and the scythe to a machine
that in one operation mows, threshes, cleans and sacks the
wheat, and in five minutes after touching the standing grain
has it ready for the market. Hay-stackers, potato planters
and diggers, feed choppers and grinders, manure-spreaders,
check-row corn planters and ditch-digging machines are some
of the common labour-saving devices. By the 28th of August
1907 the United States Patent Office had issued patents for
13,212 harvesting machines, 6352 threshers, 6680 harrows and
diggers, 9649 seeders and planters, and 13,171 ploughs. In the
manufacture of agricultural machinery the United States leads the
world. The total value of the implements and machinery used
by farmers of the United States in 1880 was $406,520,055; in
1890 $494,247,467; in 1900 $761,261,550, a gain in this last
decade of 54%. The total value of the implements and machinery
manufactured in 1850 was $6,842,611; in 1880 $68,640,486; in
1890 $81,271,651; in 1900 $101,207,428.These figures, however,
are a very poor indication of the actual use of machinery,
on account of the rapid decrease in prices following its
manufacture on a more extensive scale and by improved methods.
The effects of the new agriculture are apparent from the
following figures: By the methods of 1830 it required
64 hours and 15 minutes of man-labour and cost $3.71 to
produce an acre of wheat; by the methods employed in 1896
it required 2 hours and 58 minutes of man-labour and cost 72
cents. To produce an acre of barley in 1830 required 63 hours
of man-labour and cost $3.59; in 1896 it required 2 hours
and 43 minutes and cost 60 cents. An acre of oats produced
by the methods of 1830 required 66 hours and 15 minutes of
man-labour and cost $3.73; the methods of 1893 required only
7 hours and 6 minutes and cost $1.07. With the same unit of
labour the average quantity of all leading crops produced by
modern methods is about five times as great as that produced
by the methods employed in 1850, and the cost of production
is reduced by one half. From 1880 to 1900 the average number
of acres of leading crops per male worker increased from
23.3 to 31.0, or 34%; the number of horses per worker from
1.7 to 2.3, or 35%; and the value of agricultural product
per person employed from $286.82 to $454.37, or 58.4%.
There are numerous other factors that have operated to the
benefit of the agriculturist. Increased transportation
facilities and lower freight charges have widened his market.
The processes of canning, packing, preserving and refrigerating
have produced a similar effect, and have also provided a means
for the disposal of surplus perishable products that otherwise
would be lost. The utilization of by-products, as, for
example, the conversion of cotton seed into oil, fertilizers
and food for live stock, has become another source of profit.
Great economic and social changes have resulted from this
progress. There has been a great division of labour in
agriculture. Makers of agricultural implements, of butter
and cheese, cotton ginners, grist and wheat millers, are now
classed in the United States census reports as manufacturers,
but all their work was once done on the farm. The farmer
is now more of a specialist and more dependent on other
industries than formerly. He has changed from a producer for
home consumption or a local market to a producer for a world
market. Unfortunately, his knowledge of economic laws has
lagged behind his progress in scientific agriculture. The
farming class at times have experienced periods of great
depression, largely on account of their inability to adjust
their crops to changing conditions in the world's markets,
and in such cases have been prone to seek a remedy in radical
legislation. Periods of agricultural discontent at different times
have been marked by the political activity of the ``Grangers''
and of the ``Farmers' Alliance.'' and even by the formation
of new political parties such as the Greenback party in 1874
and the Populist or People's party in 1892--whose strength
lay mainly in the agricultural states. The new industrial
conditions that produced combinations among manufacturers
were much slower in their effect upon the farming element, but
gradually led to increasing co-operation and to the organization
of the growers of various commodities for marketing their
crops. The fruit growers of California and the tobacco
growers of Kentucky have furnished interesting examples of such
organizations. Under the improved conditions there is less
drudgery on the farm; the farmer does more work, produces
more, and yet has more leisure than formerly. Better roads,
rural free mail delivery, telephone and electric lines are
removing the isolation of country life, and to some extent are
diminishing the attractions of the cities for the rural population.
Covering as it does the breadth of the North American continent,
with 3,000,000 sq. m. of land surface, not including Alaska
and the islands, of which over 800,000,000 acres are in farms
and over 400,000,000 in actual cultivation, representing every
variety of soil and all the climatic life zones of the world,
except the extreme boreal and the hottest tropical, the United
States affords an important subject of study in respect of
agriculture. Its cotton, wheat and meat are large factors
in all markets,and its many other agricultural products are
distributed throughout the civilized world. To the student the
equipment and methods of agriculture in the United States form
as interesting a subject of examination as do its resources and
production. In quantity, distribution and inter-relation of heat
and moisture --the chief factors in agricultural production--the
United States is greatly blessed. We find in this vast
territory all the agricultural belts mapped by the biologist,
producing all varieties of cereals, fruits and breeds of live
stock, whilst all kinds of soils, adapted to different crops,
are spread out at all altitudes from 8000 ft. down to sea-level.
The story of the vast and varied agriculture of the United States
can be outlined by extracts from the figures published by the
Census, the Agricultural and other government departments.
Farms.
As a result of the great supply of available land the
number of farms in the United States increased between 1850
and 1900 from 1,449,073 to 5,739,657; their total acreage
increased from 293,560,614 to 841,201,546 acres; their
improved acreage increased from 113,032,614 to 414,793,191
acres; and their unimproved13 acreage from 180,528,000
to 426,408,355 acres. Table XXVII. exhibits the increases
of number of farms, total and improved acreage by decades.
The largest percentage of increase of improved land was 50.7,
from 1870 to 1880; the lowest was in the decade 1860 to 1870,
the period of the Civil War, and was 15.8. The chief cause
of this wonderful development of agriculture is the large area
of cheap public lands which has been available for immigrants
and natives alike. Up to 1906, under the Homestead Act of
the 20th of May 1862, the number of entries, both final and
pending, covered 185,385,000 acres. Between 1875 and 1905
the public and Indian lands sold for cash and under homestead
and timber culture laws, as well as those allotted by scrip,
granted to the colleges of agriculture and mechanic arts and
other institutions, and by military bounty land warrants, and
selected by states and railroad corporations, covered about
430,000,000 acres. In addition to this, the states and railroad
corporations sold a large amount of land to farmers of which
we have no accurate record. This vast territory, greater
TABLE XXVII.--Percentage of Increase of Number and Acreage of
Farms by Census Decades.
Number of Acreage.
The United States. Farms. Total. Improved.
1850 to 1860 41.1 38.7 44.3
1860 to 1870 30.1 0.1 15.8
1870 to 1880 50.7 31.5 50.7
1880 to 1890 13.9 16.2 25.6
1890 to 1900 25.7 35.0 16.0
1850 to 1900 296.0 186.5 267.1
in extent than Germany and France combined, was added to
the farms of the country in thirty years. In many cases
railroad building has made the settlement of the public
lands possible for the first time, and the building of branch
