AGRICULTURE
210
Germany and France combined, was added to the farms of the country in twenty-two years. In many cases railroad building has made the settlement of the public lands j>ossible for the first time, and the building of branch lines, by providing means for transporting products to market, has greatly facilitated the acquisition of other lands. The mileage of railways increased 245 per cent, between 1870 and 1896. The interesting fact is that this increase corresponds geographically to the increase in farms. The agricultural statistics do not include any farm of less than three acres unless it produced at least $500 worth of products the preceding year. The census of 1890 showed that the average size of farms was 137 acres, or three acres more than in 1880 and 66 acres less than in 1850. Within a certain limit the average area of farms is determined by the financial ability of the owners. In this day of farm machines, an owner must have a certain amount of land in order to afford the necessary equipment for cultivating it successfully. This fact appears to have stopped the further subdivision of farms and to have started a movement towards their consolidation. As will be seen from the following table (No. II.), the average farm, which steadily diminished in size from 1850 to 1880, actually increased slightly between 1880 and 1890, owing chiefly to the enlargement of the wheat farms of the west. Table II.—Average Acreage of Farms and Improved Land therein by Census Years. The United States. 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890
Average Number of Acres. Improved. Whole Farm. 78 80 71 70 78
203 198 155 133 137
The figures for the average farm areas of improved land represent more truly the actual economic condition. Thus it is instructive to notice that the number of acres under cultivation (improved land) on each farm was on the average the same—7 8 acres—at the end of the forty-years period as at its beginning. The existence of available surplus land has its influence ; but the increasing use of improved machines and tools, and the construction of convenient railroads, appear to be the chief causes for the enlargement of farms. In farms cultivated by owners there was an increase between 1880 and 1890 of 285,422, or 9‘56 per cent.; in farms rented for money, of 132,302, or 41 per cent.; and in farms rented for a share of the products, of 138,010, or 19*65 per cent. In 1890, 71*6 of all the farms were cultivated by their owners, as against 74*4 per cent, in 1880. From 1880 to 1890 the farm tenancy grew from 25*6 to 28*4 per cent., an increase of 2*8 per cent. The steady drift towards farm tenancy of late is believed to be injurious to production; but it is impossible to prove this, so great has been the aggregate increase in products. The number of persons engaged in agriculture as a business in 1890 was 8,395,634, or 37 per cent, of all persons in gainful occupations. It is interesting ^urai'oc- t0 n0^e 678,000 of these were women. cupatlons. This is an increase of nearly 1,000,000 persons over 1880, or 12*6 per cent. Thus, if the farm family is the same size as that of the remainder of the population—it is probably slightly larger—the agricultural population would be 37 per cent, of the whole. Statis-
[united
ticians usually put it at 40 per cent., and this is probably more nearly correct. Table III.—Lumber of Persons of Ten Years of Age and over in the Different Agricultural Pursuits in 1890. Occupation. Dairymen and women . . . . Farmers and farm superintendents Farm labourers...... Gardeners, nurserymen, and viticulturists Other pursuits ...... Total
Total Persons. 17,895 5,281,557 3,004,061 72,601 19,520 8,395,634
The increase in farm tenancy, and especially thediminished demand for labour relative to products, due to the growing use of machinery, reduced the number of agricultural labourers who work for wages from 49 per cent, of all agricultural workers in 1870 to 43*6 in 1880 and 35*8 in 1890. The wages paid farm labourers, as ascertained by the Department of Agriculture, are rather low compared with the average wages of labour, but not lower than the wages of other unskilled labour. Theaverage monthly wage of the agricultural labourer, without board, was $19.50 in 1870, $16.42 in 1880, $18.33 in 1890, and $17.70 in 1895. These wages are good as compared with those earned in Continental countries. The figures for farm capital and the value of agricultural products are so vast that it is extremely difficult to put them in form to be grasped intelligently. The farm capital of the United States reported ^aIue of by the census of 1890 reached $15,500,000,000, products. the main classes being, in round numbers :—Land, fences, and buildings, $13,000,000,000; machines and implements, $500,000,000; live stock, $2,000,000,000, The products of the farms in the census year, 1889, were valued at $2,500,000,000. Between 1850 and 1890 the aggregate farm capital increased 303 per cent.; the value of annual products increased between 1870 and 1890, 15*5 per cent. The greatest increase of farm capital was between 1850 and 1860, 101 per cent.; the next was the decade 1880 to 1890, when the increase was 29 per cent. From 1870 to 1880 the value of farm products increased 4 per cent.; from 1880 to 1890, 11 per cent. It is noteworthy that “the value of capital increased in a much greater degree than the value of products.” In order to put the facts about the crops grown in the United States in a form that may be readily understood, Mr Holmes of the Department of Agriculture has computed the number of railroad freight cars of fifteen tons’ capacity required to haul the crops of 1897 and what their length in trains would be. He tells us that to haul the hay crop 4,017,933 cars would be needed, and the length of the train would be 25,112 miles, or more than long enough to encircle the earth at the equator ; for the corn crop there must be 3,540,257 cars, making a train 22,127 miles long ; the wheat crop would take 1,060,000 cars, with a total length of 6625 miles, or farther than from New York to Cape Horn ; for the oat crop a train of 772,098 cars, extending 4826 miles, or from New York to the Congo River ; the potato crop would take a train of 327,354 cars, and 2046 miles long, which would extend from New York to Utah ; the cotton crop would take a train as long as from New York to Chicago, and the barley crop one that would reach from Washington, D.C., to Atlanta, Ga. The growth of farm area and of capital invested in agriculture was followed by a proportionate increase in the principal crops. Between 1880 and 1890 the area devoted to each crop increased as follows :—Indian corn (maize), 15*6 per cent.; rye, 17*9 percent.; oats, 75*4 per cent. 7 barley, 61*2 per cent. ; cotton, 39*3 per cent.; sugar-cane, 20*7 per cent.; hay, 72*9 per cent.; and tobacco, 8*8 per cent. ; while the area in wheat decreased 5*2 per cent. ; buckwheat, 1*3 per cent.; and rice, 7*4 per cent. The
