How much of it?  The records of the Patent Office show, and the experience of farmers confirms it, that all the improvements in farm machinery since 1870 have not reduced the labor cost of farm produce on the general average more than 2-1/2 per cent.  Here is a little paradox for you to study.  In the twenty-five years from 1845 to 1870 the progress of invention in farm machinery was greater than in all the previous history of the world, marvellously rapid, in fact, and during those years the farm price of the produce steadily increased; but in the ensuing twenty-five years to 1895 there were very few improvements, and the price has declined with steadily increasing speed.  This fact is either ignorantly or skilfully evaded by Edward Atkinson and David A. Wells in their elaborate articles on the subject; so I will present some facts and figures which were obtained early this year in the Patent Office, and carefully verified by members of Congress from every portion of the farming regions.

Since 1795 there have been granted 6,700 patents for plows, but since 1870 there have been but three really valuable improvements.  Farmers are divided in opinion as to whether the riding plow reduces the labor cost.  The lister, recently patented, throws the earth into a ridge and enables the farmer to plant without previously breaking the soil.  It is valuable in the dry regions of the West, but useless where the rainfall is great, as the soil must there be broken up anyhow.  There have been 920 corn gatherers patented, of which only one is considered a success, and most farmers reject it on account of the waste.  The general verdict is that the labor of producing corn has been reduced very little, if any.  In the labor of producing potatoes there has been no reduction whatever, nor in the finer garden products, nor in fruits.  It takes the same labor to produce a fat hog or a fat ox, a sheep, horse, or mule, as in 1870.  In wool growing many patents have been taken out for shearers, and three of them are said to be savers of labor, provided the wool grower is so situated that he can attach the shearer to a horse or steam power.

There have been since the opening of the Office 6,620 patents for harvesters, of which the only great improvement since 1870 is the twine binder, for which over 900 patents have been taken out.  The beheader is used in California, as it was before 1870, and in the prairie regions the sheaf-carrier has recently been introduced, holding the sheaves until enough are collected to make a shock.  Counting the labor of the men who did the binding after the original McCormick reaper at $2 per day, the total saving by all these improvements since 1870 is estimated at 6 cents per bushel for wheat, rye, and oats.  Much of this saving in labor is neutralized by cost of machines, interest, and repairs.  There have been nearly 3,000 patents in fences, over 5,000 in the making of boots and shoes, and in stoves and heaters 8,240, none affecting farm