The Washington times., 1901-09-19
WAGES OF FARMING HANDS.
The Status of the Agricultural
Lnborer Throughout the Country.


tion is the result of local investigations
| in eleven States
n greater number of persons are direct
iy engaged In some form OF agriculture
than In any other branch of labor. There
were 22,sss.toi persons. ten years Ss age
| and over. having gainful occupa tons In
the United States In 1880, of whom 1885,
ga. or Ss.s per cent. were engaged In ag-
| ricuiture. of these 3.Oo+0 were agricul-
tural laborers. the class whose wages are
the subject OF this report. Agrtcuitur-
al Iaborers-that is, those who work for
hire-are decreasing element al COM
pared with the entire farm labor of the
United States. In 1879 they constituted
1873 per cent. or nearly one-half. Of the
agricultural werkeTs; in 1850. s3.s per cent.
and in 1882 S5.s per cent. or a little more
than one-third
1t appears from the reports on agricul-
ture of the censuses of 1880 and 1890 that
the number of rented farms increased
from 102i,eO1 in 1850 to 1.2s4.sl3 in 1890 or
from 2o-os per cent of the total farms In
1880 to 2S.3I per cent in 1880 During the
same time the number OF farms TILED by
their owners increased from ZSs4.ssi In
1850 to 3.2s9, rs in 1890. although the per-
centage that the number OF owned farms
was of the total number of farms de-
creased from Hi per cent in 1850 to 71.s3
per cect in 1890. These statistics indicate
the tendency of farm iaborers TO become
farm tenants and farm owners.
AT an early date 1t is probable that kin
dred facts will be available for 1900. 1t
viii be matter of interest to see how far
returns upon actual count agree with the
indications of tendencies toward tenure by
lease and the effects upon hired labor
Y ut tnar Of inv rteo
In general. the negro has lower wages
than the white. This Is not so much from
comparison of an individual negro with
an individual white as because OF con-
dition affecting negroes as a body which
has established customs of privileges and
allowances for negroes as to work and
compensation that apply to whites in the
States employing large numbers OF ne
groes only in q very limited degree The
negro Is furnished rations rather than
boarded; the rations may not be all that
he would require. but only stated amounts
of staple articles. which he supplements,
as he may. from his garden patch, his
flock of chickens, the woods, or the
waters.
In parts of the South white labor is
not as well esteemed as colored labor;
the former does not fit as well into the
social economy of the region as the lat
ter. In other districts white labor seems
to take more advanced position, corre-
spending somewhat to skilled labor. But
in the Southern States. the colored pop
ulation has been the main dependence for
agricultural labor. Since the emancipa-
ton that came of the civil war, the white
laborer has been a larger factor in the
industrial economy, but there are ex-
1.ad nfr,IIx ~.
where colored help is still almost the ex-
elusive dependence. CoIored labor when
found at the North loses certain charac-
teristics that must be recognized in study
ing wage conditions at the South. In the
North the colored agricultural laborers
are too few in numbers to make any i'm
preston as distinct class. and there are
but few counties where they are found
on farms. In such instances, usually
near the border of the former slave
States, the negro generally is presumed to
have adapted himself to local customs
so that little distinction is made between
negro and white labor. When any diff
ference is maintained. it is generally true
that wages paid whites are slightly larger
than those paid negroes.
In the earlier social economy the ne
gro was housed, fed, and clothed in re-
seed and animals and implements for
cropping. His work was hard and exact
ing in the months of planting. cultivating.
and harvesting, and relatively leisurely in
the considerable intervals. The change
from slavery to freedom has not yet de-
veloped a condition of direct dependence
on the wages earned. received. and used
according to the personal Judgment Of the
laborer, as has been usual in the earlier
free States. To a great extent. the negro
of the South still has land, animals. seed,
food. shelter, part or all, furnished by
the landed proprietor or by a trader. All
this affects the rate of nominal wages.
1t is not prominently question of color,
but 1t Is essentially question of social
economy in which color becomes involv-
ed. because so many of the laborers with
such customs of life are colored.
Where a farm hand at the North, al
most universally a white man, would be
boarded, the farm nand at the South.
still generally negro, on the lowlands.
will have cabin. fuel. and rations of
food, often simply a stipulated
number of pounds of staple food. as meat
and meal, weekly. He may have his gar
den patch and his flock of poultry be-
sides, while the woodlands and the
streams have not lost their usefulness for
his table as much as in the more densely
settled North.
The perplexities attending hiring lab
orers have given an increased tendency
to leasing, not only at the South. but also
over large areas at the North. Tenants
take such tracks as they manage
with the help of their families and pay
a cash rent per acre. but more
frequently a fraction or the crop, great
er or less according to the assistance re-
ceived from the owner in the way of seed,
team, implements, and supplies.
Ordinary farm life is made up of many
details. varying continually with soil. elf
mate, growth of timber, slope of the
ground. habits of living, and many other
A manufacturer can COM
pare the cost of making a plow. produc-
ing a ton of steel, or of making a yard of
cloth, and like cost to another manufac-
be reached in computing the cost of pro-
duction upon tho farm. Particular crops,
as wheat, corn. cotton, tobacco, or fruit
can be produced, under some circum-
so that closely accurate ac-
count can be kept of outlay and returns
In general. however. daily life upon the
farm is so diversified that the separation
Of charges and credits with the farm pro-
ducts IS complicated.
Overseers or foremen are rare In the
economy of the country as
whole. The great ranches of the West
have managers, overSeers, or foremeu:
the summer residence farms of wealthy
owners in Eastern States are under like
charge: sugar plantation of Louisiana
often needs d general manager a SUPER
ntendent of the machinery of transporta-
ton by locomotives. cars, and movable
tracks, and machinery OF manufacture
of planting and cuitiyating
forces with foremen and gang bosses in
Inc various subdivisions of an immense
and agricultural Industrial
using many grades OF skill
I'd and unskilled labor; great fruit and
truck farms at sundry points require
kindred supervision; in many States some
farm enterprise will be on so large a scale
nat the owner Will use some supervising
lfhcer to aid MIN In administration. but
Ill these combined make an insignificant