The returns give a true explanation of the apparent anomaly of low prices and high wages. There is a difference in employers. Some are progressive, increase the fertility of their lands, use the best methods and implements, employ labor, pay good wages and make money. Others are less enterprising, diligent, or progressive, and make small net profit or none at all. As margins of profit grow narrow, skill is at a premium, wastes are ruinous, the skillful succeed, the careless go to the wall. The returns are full of indications that the present is a crucial test of the individual farmer. They teach the necessity of progress in agriculture, and especially a facility for prompt adaptation of current effort to changing conditions. THE COURSE OF FARM WAGES. A careful analysis of all the data collected concerning farm wages from 1840 to 1865, in comparison with results of the more recent investigations, will show that in fifty years the compensation of farm labor has very nearly doubled. The quotations which appear in subsequent pages, largely from private records, are doubtless accurate. They evidently include many grades of efficiency, though more frequently relate to superior efficiency, to the better class of laborers, and therefore can not be taken as an average. Nor should those of the Eastern States, where early development of a wide range of industries made farm labor abnormally high, be credited with too large an influence on the general average. Including all grades of service and degrees of efficiency, it would be fair to make the general average for labor of white men about $8.50 per month with board and $12.50 without board. It is now about $15.85 with board and $23.50 without board. Mr. Mathew Carey, the economist, estimated the rate of wages over fifty years ago, from his standpoint of observation in the Atlantic slope, at $9 and board, which was doubtless approximately correct for the region in which manufacturers had already begun to advance wages, but if the more agricultural and western districts are included and all grades of labor are fairly represented $8.50 would be a very close and reasonably accurate average. Wages advanced slowly as population increased, manufacturing gradually extended, and mining was initiated, and in 1860 a range of $10 to $15 was common in the East, with an average approximating $12, while in exclusively agricultural districts it was $9 to $10. The general average may be stated approximately at $11. A rapid rise followed when three million soldiers of two armies were withdrawn from constructive and commercial industries to the fields of war. This brings us to the beginning of thorough and general investigation, the results of which appear in these pages. In comparison with other countries American farm labor stands first in rate of compensation. The present rate of $282 per annum for labor of the Caucasian race can scarcely be approached by any country, unless by Australia. An average of other countries can not be authoritatively stated, but current estimates have been frequently quoted about as follows: Great Britain, $150; France, $125; Holland, $100; Germany, 890; Russia, $60; Italy, $50; India, $30. The present rate can only be maintained by keeping up the fertility of the soil, utilizing the best results of invention and skill in implements and machinery, advancing the status of practical agriculture, supplying all domestic demands for all required products, and seeking foreign markets for the surplus. WAGES PER MONTH BY THE YEAR OR SEASON. Nevada 24.00 23.00 27.00 26. 25 21.25 24.75 23.86 25.67 22.53 California Average. 23.50 23.50 26.25 12.54 12.45 12.36 12.34 12.41 10.43 12.72 16.55 17.45 These are the results of nine investigations, at different dates, from 1866 to 1892. They are made by our county correspondents, and also during the past ten years by the correspondents of our State agents, the two results revised and harmonized in this office. While changes occur from one date of investigation to another, they are in accord with controlling conditions and circumstances, and are very slight in recent years, in which the causes of change are only mildly operative. Where changes occur the causes are usually apparent. 21825-No, 4 This table records the average wages paid per day for transient service in harvest. The difference between the early and recent averages is much greater in harvest wages than in the monthly wages by the year. The decline to present level was not reached until after 1885, whereas in the case of yearly wages it was reached about ten years earlier. The average decline in harvest wages from 1866 to 1892 was 41 per cent, while in monthly wages it was 31 per cent. The difference between the rates with and without board is less in harvest wages than in wages by the year. The exigency is pressing and the inconvenience of boarding is less considered. The present rate with board is less than the rate without board by 22 per cent, but in the record of monthly wages it is 33 per cent. |