rs' incomes in different
parts of the country vary pretty nearly with the amount of horse-power
used per man. Economies equally great are made in the work done in the
barnyards and barns. In most parts of the country only a beginning
has been made in these ways, and in future the census will continue to
reflect the progress in these directions.

Sec. 7. #Transfer of work from farm to factory#. The other part of the
explanation of the decrease in the proportion of the population that
is engaged in agriculture is that many operations are, step by step,
being transferred from the farm to the factory. "Agriculture," we have
observed, is a great complex of industries, in which many different
products are taken from the first simplest extractive stage, and then
put through successive processes to make them more nearly fitted for
their final uses. Not so long ago grain cut in the field was threshed,
winnowed, shelled, made into flour, and baked on the farm, as it still
is in many places. Logs were cut into boards, planed, and made into
houses or furniture by the farmer. The old-time farmer made by hand a
large number of his farm implements--rakes, ax handles, pumps, carts,
and even wagons. Until a generation ago all butter, cheese, and other
dairy products were made on the farm. Now these things are being done
in steadily increasing proportion by workers classified as in the
manufacturing industries, and agriculture contains fewer separate
industries and processes. Of course there is economy of labor in
nearly all of these changes, but the number occupied in agriculture is
greatly reduced. Many farmers and more farmers' sons are moving from
agriculture into occupations of manufacturing, trade, transportation,
and the professions, and are becoming more narrow specialists.

Sec. 8. #The rural exodus#. The percentage of persons in the rural
population changes at about the same rate as does that of the persons
occupied in agriculture. In 1890 it was 64, in 1900 it was 60, and in
1910 it was 54 per cent. The percentage of the population in cities of
8000 or more has steadily increased. This phenomenon has been marked
in all of the countries that have been developing along industrial
lines. It has been variously described as "the rural exodus," "the
abandonment-of-the-farm-movement," and "the city-ward drift."[6] It
is only in part explained by the change from agriculture to other
occupations; perhaps even in greater part it is due