range of successful research on behalf of agriculture has been developed with the aid of the biological sciences, and in the closing years of the nineteenth century investigations in agricultural physics assumed great importance. The marvelous success of scientific effort, largely under government patronage, as applied to dairying and the sugar-beet industry, is one of the notable achievements of that century. Organized scientific research for the benefit of agriculture through experiment stations and kindred institutions has become a regular and permanent agency for the advancement of this art. See Agricultural Experiment Station; and Agriculture, Department of.
The vital interest of the whole community in the success of agriculture as the great basal industry has been distinctly recognized during the nineteenth century by the widespread establishment of governmental agencies for its promotion. Agriculture has now a definite place in the ministries of almost all the civilized nations of the globe. In Great Britain the government fosters agricultural interests through a Board of Agriculture (q.v.). In the United States the Federal Government maintains a Department of Agriculture (q.v.), whose chief officer has had a seat in the President's Cabinet since 1889 as the Secretary of Agriculture. Many of the States, too, have departments, boards, or commissioners of agriculture.
Agricultural Machinery. One of the features of the agricultural history of the past fifty years has been the extensive introduction of machinery. Sowing machines, cultivators, and all the machines that displace the hoe are of comparatively recent invention. As early as 33 A.D., according to Pliny, the Gauls used a cart with projections in front which cut or tore off the heads of grain; but until recent times little effort was made to invent or introduce labor-saving machinery, owing to popular prejudice. The thrashing machine was not invented until 1786, and though an attempt was made early in the century to construct reaping machines, but small success was won until the time of Bell, Hussey, and McCormick. (See Reapers, Reaping.) In the hay harvest, horse power is applied by means of the mowing-machine, the hay-tedder, the rake, and machines for loading and unloading the hay. Another class of machines, as, for example, the one for threshing, deal with the gathered crops. The use of a system of machinery like that applied to dairying has made great changes in certain lines of agriculture. From horse power, too, there has been a partial change to steam power. About the year 1850 the steam plow began to be used in England. One special advantage in the minds of English farmers was the depth to which the soil could be turned; moreover, the engine was utilized for many purposes on the large estates of that country. The great advantage of steam farm machinery in America has been for operations like that of threshing, but the use of steam for this purpose has not proved especially economical. Improved farm machinery in America has made possible the rapid settling of the new States and the successful gathering of their immense harvests. See Harvest and Harvesting; Implements, Agricultural; Threshing and Threshing Machines; Plow, Plowing. In an article on the progress of agriculture in the United States, Mr. G. K. Holmes, of the Department of Agriculture, states that “the amount of human labor now (1896) required to produce a bushel of wheat from beginning to end is on an average only ten minutes, whereas in 1830 the time was three hours and three minutes. During the interval between these years the cost of the human labor required to produce this bushel of wheat declined from 17¾ cents to 3⅓ cents. In the contrast thus presented the heavy, clumsy plow of the day was used in 1830; the seed was sown by hand and was harrowed into the ground by the drawing of bushes over it; the grain was cut with sickles, hauled to a barn, and some time before the following spring was thrashed with flails; the winnowing was done with a sheet attached to rods, on which the grain was placed with a shovel and then tossed up and down by two men until the wind had blown out the chaff. In the latter year, on the contrary, the ground was plowed and pulverized with the same operation by a disk plow; the seed was sown with a mechanical seeder drawn by horses; the reaping, thrashing, and sacking of the wheat were done with the combined reaper and thrasher drawn by horses, and then the wheat was ready to haul to the granary.”
System in Farming. There is a movement in agriculture to provide for local demands, to take advantage of growing centres of population, to strive for excellence and exact system in place of haphazard methods. The evaporator has broadened the fruit market. The canning industry has utilized fruits and vegetables and saved the agricultural balances in sections. Cold storage, rapid transportation, and the refrigerator car have reduced risks and shortened apparent distances. New Zealand is in the markets of London. Canada and the United States have a profitable apple trade with England. The expenses of transportation have been reduced to a fraction of the previous cost, and thus the wheat lands of Dakota have been laid alongside those of both New England and old England, with gain for the one and with loss for the others. In dairying there has been one of the triumphs of recent agriculture. Specialization, with scientific method and improved machinery, has brought excellence without destruction of the market. Dairy products, in contrast with others, are higher than they were fifty years ago. Carried on largely as coöperative undertakings, creameries and cheese factories (see Dairying) have increased in Europe and America. A large industry in England, dairying on the coöperative basis has been on the increase in France. The Netherlands, famous for its careful agriculture, is a leading dairy country. Switzerland and Canada export large quantities of cheese. Denmark no longer competes for the wheat trade, but has become one of the most successful of dairy countries, exporting immense quantities of high grade butter to England.
America in Recent Times. The past fifty years have been a period of careful cultivation, though with many exceptions, in America. Thorough drainage and deep plowing, established in England, have been also made American. A great variety of commercial fertilizers are widely used. In the United States alone it is estimated that about 2,000,000 tons of such fertilizers are annually consumed. The storing of green crops in silos has become common. A great amount of intelligent work has been given
