Roberts, Byrn, Ch. XVI. wheat ranches of California, is combined a harrow and seed-drill, so that the ground is prepared and the crop sown at one and the same time. Patents for an automatic mower were taken out by Obed Hussey of Baltimore, December 31, 1833, and by Cyrus H. McCormick of Rockbridge, Virginia, in the following June. These reapers enabled one man with a team of horses to cut as much grain as twenty men swinging a cradle. Hands were scarce in the new West, and farmers eagerly availed themselves of this labor-saving device. There were three machines manufactured in 1840, three thousand in 1850, and twenty thousand in 1860. Since the principal market was in the upper Mississippi Valley, the manufacture gravitated to this section. McCormick's first reaper was made at a blacksmith's shop in the Shenandoah Valley. In 1846 the works were transferred to Cincinnati, in 1849 to Chicago. Harvester patents to the number of twelve thousand have been issued by the United States government. Later improvements enable the machine to sheaf and bind the falling grain, and finally to thresh it as fast as cut. The saving in time and cost of labor achieved by machinery has been as great for agriculture as for the textile industries. The production of twenty bushels of wheat from an acre of land required in Quaintance, 1830 six days' work. With the aid of machinéry the up-todate farmer can accomplish the same result in three hours and nineteen minutes. The labor cost involved in the production of a bushel of wheat, in spite of the advance in wages, is to-day but one fifth what it was in 1830. 828. The value of all the agricultural machinery manufactured in the census year 1850 was $6,842,611; the output of 1860 was $20,831,904, that of 1900, $101,207,428. Some of this machinery has been exported to foreign lands, but the bulk of it represents expenditure on the part of American farmers in the interest of improved agriculture. Commercial Fertilizers. -The use of fertilizers with which to nourish exhausted soils, came into use in this period. One thousand tons of guano were brought to the United States in 1848. The importation steadily increased in the decade following, and amounted to sixty thousand tons in 1856. But the Peruvian, as well as the Mexican, supply was soon exhausted, and the manufacture of mechanical fertilizers was undertaken by an enterprising physician of Baltimore. The essential plant food was derived from bones, shells and phosphate rock, potash, and ammoniates. The refuse of fish canneries and slaughterhouses also was converted into nutriment for growing crops. Writings of Washington, III, 328, 406; X, 178; XII, 222–224. Greathouse, Scientific Agriculture. - In his last Congressional message, George Washington, our farmer president, recommended the establishment of a government department charged with the furthering of intelligent agriculture. The proposition was debated from time to time, but action was deferred till 1839, when Congress appropriated one thousand dollars to U. S. Dept. be expended in the purchase of new varieties of seeds and Agriculture. plants under the direction of the patent office. The appro- Roberts, priation was increased as the propaganda grew popular, but Fertility of the Bureau of Agriculture was not organized as a distinct Ch. VI. department until 1862. In this same year provision was made for the maintenance of agricultural colleges from the proceeds of land grants, and the movement for scientific agriculture obtained full recognition. Agricultural experiment stations and model farms have since been established in every state in the Union. The results of expert investigation are disseminated the length and breadth of the country by farmers' bulletins setting forth the best methods. It has been demonstrated that under suitable rotation of crops the drain on the chemical constituents of the soil may be minimized. The introduction of nitrogen-bearing plants-clover, cow-peas, and alfalfahas done much to conserve the fertility of the fields. New varieties of corn and tobacco have been made to flourish on soils formerly regarded as unproductive. The planting of spring wheat has brought the vast plains of Minnesota and the Dakotas under profitable cultivation. Experiments with sugar beets proved that this crop could be successfully grown through a wide belt in the North and the Land, U.S. Census, Ingle, Goodloe, Resources of States. West. The introduction of the navel orange and irrigation have converted the arid lands of southern California into prosperous orchards. Insect pests, blight, and animal diseases have been combated by scientific remedies. Not only profits from agriculture, but the conditions of farm life have gained enormously from this agrarian economy. The upto-date farmer uses his brain far more and his muscle far less than was the custom of his predecessors. Industrial Backwardness of the South Agriculture. The planters south of Mason and Dixon's line had small share in the agricultural improvements of the ante-bellum period. Agriculture carried on by slave the Southern labor has always been crude and extensive. Machinery could not be used to advantage because the laborers were careless and unintelligent. A cheap wooden plow drawn by mule or ox, a hoe, and a broadax were the only implements with which the field hands could be trusted. The contrast in the equipment of Northern and Southern U.S. Census, agriculture is evident in the census statistics. The money 1900, value of agricultural implements and machinery averaged in 1850 thirty-seven cents per acre in the Southern states, and seventy-seven in the Northern. In 1860 the difference was still greater, the average value per acre being forty-two cents in the Southern and ninety-four cents in the Northern states. Conservation of the soil by the application of manures and fertilizers, rotation of crops, and the introduction of new seeds seemed so difficult that few planters undertook to improve on antiquated processes. The simpler method was to abandon the cultivation of exhausted soils and clear new land. So usual was this practice, that a field entirely free from stumps was thought less fertile and actually brought a lower price in the market than land cluttered with the débris of the forest. The proportion of improved land was steadily increasing in the Northern sections of the country, while in the Southern it was slightly declining. |