Relation between production and wage rates. Necessarily in the long course of time the employing farmer must depend upon the value of his products for the wages that he pays to his laborers. He can not go on indefinitely paying wages out of capital, but he must in the general experience pay them out of farm products. Hence it follows as a matter of inference that farm wages may be higher in those States in which the value of the products per worker is higher than in those States in which the value of products per worker is lower.

This conclusion is amply substantiated in the investigation of farm wages in 1909. The highest wages are paid in the Western division of States, and in this division the average value of farm products per agricultural worker in 1899 was $759. Next below this division in both rate of wages and average value of farm products per worker, $678, is the North Central division; and third in order in both respects is the North Atlantic division. The South Central division is fourth in order in both rate of wages and value of products per worker, which is $271; and last of all is the South Atlantic division in both respects, the average value of products per worker being $233. These values stand for gross amount of products, and not for net wealth produced.

Wages supplementary to money rates. The nominal money rate of wages paid for farm labor by no means fully represents the real wages received by the laborer. There are two important additions to the nominal money rate of wages which enter little if at all into the thoughts and plans of agricultural laborers. A farm laborer receiving, say, $30 per month, as he did in the North Atlantic and North Central States in 1909, often receives supplemental wages in the form of use of dwelling and garden, accommodations for cow, pigs, and poultry. The value of the supplemental wage allowances . . . is relatively a large addition to the nominal rate.

In the case of the man receiving $30 in money wages, the rental value of dwelling and appurtenances would probably be about $3.25 to $4.50. If the farm laborer gets firewood as an item of supplemental wages, its reported value per month ranges from about $1.06 to $2.39, the latter figure being applicable to the $30 laborer in the North.

It often happens that the laborer receives supplementary to his money rate of wages the privilege of pasturing his cow, horse, or swine, and the estimated monthly cost of this as an average for the United States is from 65 cents to $1.61. Or, there may be an allowance for feed outside of pasturage for cow, or horse, or swine, or poultry, and the cost of this as established by this investigation ranges from $1.11 to $3.11.

A very common supplementary wage allowance in some parts of the country, especially in the North Central States, is the frequent use of a horse and buggy by the farm laborer. The monthly value of this has been estimated by the correspondents of the Bureau of Statistics in all parts of the United States, with the result that it ranges from 87 cents to $2.37. Or, the laborer may own a horse, and stabling and feed are provided by his employer in addition to the money rate of wages. For this service it is estimated that the cost ranges from 45 cents to $2 per month throughout the entire country.

Perhaps the laborer's family also receives without specific charge a considerable quantity of fruit. The value of this fruit is estimated on a monthly basis, although it may have been received within one season, and ranges from 62 cents to $1.64 monthly throughout the year. If the laborer is a single man, his employer hires a woman to do his laundry work as a part of the family wash, and the value of this service is estimated to range from 75 cents to $2 per month.

No laborer receives all of these supplemental wages, but it often happens that he receives more than one item of them. If he is a man of family, an increase of his monthly money rate of wages by $5 to $10 worth of supplemental allowances and even more is not uncommon in many States.

Advantage of farm wages in purchasing power. If the farm laborer is comparing his nominal rate of money wages with the similar rate of the motorman or conductor of the electric railway who lives in the city, he must take into consideration the less costly living that he gets on the farm. In some respects it is a better living, against which of course there must be made a set-off of features that are in some respects worse.

The farm laborer gets many things at prices which are as low as wholesale prices in the motorman's city, and sometimes lower. He can get his supply of poultry at low prices, if he does not produce it himself; and so with eggs, milk, and butter ; sometimes flour and meal; very likely potatoes and other vegetables and fruit. At low prices he may also get fresh and salt pork, his fuel and, in many parts of the country, his tobacco. If he pays rent for his dwelling, he will pay, say, $40 per year, whereas the motorman with a family pays $150.

All things considered - the allowances received by the farm laborer supplemental to the money rate of wages and the lower cost of many things that he buys as compared with the cost in the city - the farm laborer receiving nominally $30 per month really gets, in comparison with his situation as it would be if he lived in the city, perhaps more than the motor-man or street-car conductor gets, and very likely in most cases a larger amount than he would be likely to earn in any occupation open to him in the city.

The money wage rates of farm laborers have increased in a marked degree within the last few years, and in this respect a comparison may be made with the wages of other working-men. A still further comparison may be made between the purchasing power of the wages of the farm laborer in terms of food and the purchasing power of the wages of working-men. The investigations of the United States Bureau of Labor make possible this comparison.

If the mean wage rates of agricultural laborers for the years 1890-1898 be regarded as 100, the rate per month of the outdoor labor of men on farms in hiring by the year and season in 1890 is represented by 100.9. The relative number increased to 103.6 in 1893, and there was a sudden decline to 96.3 in 1894, after which there was an unbroken increase in this relative number until in 1907 it was 141.1.

The purchasing power of the wages of the farm laborer in 1907 in terms of actual food consumption in comparison with the mean of 1890-1898 is represented by the comparative number 117.1. In 1907 the corresponding relative number standing for the wages of the workingman was 122.5 and the purchasing power of his wages in terms of actual food consumption in 1907 is represented by the relative number 101.7, as compared with the mean of 1890-1898 which, as before stated, is represented by 100.

As time advanced after 1890 the farm laborer, setting out with wages having a relative purchasing power in terms of food about equal to that of the workingman, passed him in this respect in 1899, and rapidly gained upon him in subsequent years.

Ability of laborers to become tenants or owners. In the investigation of farm wages in 1909 inquiries were made to ascertain to what extent male outdoor farm laborers were qualified to become farm tenants. In the opinion of the correspondents who supplied answers, 48 per cent of the laborers of the South Central States are so qualified; 46 per cent in the North Central States; 37 per cent in the Western; 35 per cent in the South Atlantic; and, lowest of all, 33 per cent in the North Atlantic States.

Correspondents were asked whether it was reasonably possible for farm laborers and tenants to save enough to buy a farm that would support a family even with the help of a mortgage, and their replies indicated that 72 per cent of farm laborers and tenants find it reasonably possible to acquire farm ownership. The percentages for the geographic divisions are all over 70 and under 80 - a remarkably uniform condition of affairs with regard to this matter throughout the United States.

Small movement from city to farm. The movement from city to farm for the purpose of permanent farm life and labor, either for hire or under ownership, has hardly become general enough in this country to present recognizable proportions. There is a little of this movement here and a little there, but nearly all cases are sporadic.

But there is one sort of labor that goes from city to farm which has become large enough to be perceptible, and that is seasonal labor for employment, not in general farming operations, but for special purposes. The migration of men from cities to follow the wheat harvest from Oklahoma to North Dakota is the best known feature of this sort of farm labor. It is not so generally known that women and children and some men, too, go from the city to the farm at certain seasons to harvest cucumbers to be sold to the pickle factory; to pick, grade, pack, and dry fruits; to harvest hops and berries, and dig potatoes, and so on with other crops that need a rush of labor at time of harvest. Some labor of this sort is applied also to the cultivation of crops, as in pulling weeds from beets and onions, but this labor does not seem to be used much for cultivating crops and not at all for planting.