There is also another reason why the age of the employed has been raised. It is due to the growth of higher education. Where formerly the farmers children between the ages of twelve and twenty-one did most of the farm work, now many of them at the same age are attending schools and colleges. The sons of a man, who a generation ago found no opportunity to get beyond the district school, graduate from high school and college, and thus spend most of their time in study until they are past twenty-one years of age.
Labor unions have doubtless caused a scarcity of farm labor by increasing the proportion of the created wealth which goes to the man who labors without capital. When a man can obtain fifty cents an hour for laying brick, he does not wish to work in the hay field at twenty cents an hour, even though the difference in the cost of living may in great measure offset the difference in wages.
There is a growing tendency to perform work by what is called contract labor. Thus a person may agree to weed and hoe sugar beets at a certain rate per acre. He, in turn, employs a force of cheap laborers which he sends from farm to farm to do this work. The harvesting of fruits and garden crops is not infrequently done in some such manner. In one instance a contractor of laborers of foreign birth has been furnishing them for all kinds of farm work. He keeps 20 to 40 of these laborers on a small farm, furnishing them a dwelling and selling them food supplies. Farmers telephone for help when in need. The contractor receives $1.65 for a days work and pays the laborer $1.50.
It appears from the preceding considerations that there are open to every farmer at least three methods of increasing the efficiency of farm labor. He may make every days labor more efficient by use of labor-saving machinery and the employment of it in the most efficient manner; as, for example, using three 1,500-pound horses to his farm machinery instead of a pair of 1,200-pound horses. He may modify the character of his farming in order that profitable labor will be more continuous. He may modify the method of employing labor; as, for example, by introducing the system of contracting labor for specific purposes where feasible.
Increase in the price of farm labor is not an evil. It is an indication that labor applied to agriculture is becoming more productive and hence more profitable. Since more than one-half the labor of the farm is done by the owner and his family, the farmer is benefited through the rise in price of farm wages. The more that labor can be made to earn upon the farm, the better it will be not only for the farm owner but for society in general.
CHAPTER XVIII
SHIPPING
The means of facile transportation and the machinery of trade are the need and the development of a complex civilization. The importance of these useful adjuncts of everyday life is indicated by the fact that about one-fourth of all the people engaged in gainful occupations in civilized communities are employed in them. Nevertheless the expense of transportation and trade constitutes a tax upon the consumer which it is the aim of modern methods to reduce to the lowest limits. Recent investigations indicate that for every thirteen dollars the consumer expends for farm products the producers receive six dollars. In some directions most remarkable results have been accomplished. A recent quotation on wheat per bushel was as follows: Chicago, $0.93; Antwerp, $1.04; London, $1.06; Hamburg, $1.07. Eleven to 14 cents per bushel represents the cost of haul and commissions between Chicago and the European cities named. Methods of handling have been so perfected that from the time the western farmer places the bundle of wheat at the mouth of the threshing machine the grain literally flows through the channels of trade until it reaches the flour sack. On an average the English miller pays about 20 cents a bushel more for wheat than the American farmer receives for it.
The cost of distributing many other farm products is greater, although the range of distribution is much less. The cost of haulage and selling potatoes is from 25 to 50% of the retail price, while with hay it is still higher. The cost of distributing all forms of truck and market garden produce is high and often wasteful. Many attempts have been made to eliminate a part of this cost as well as to better the conditions of the supplies when they reach the consumer. While many individuals have been quite successful in dealing directly with the consumer, little has thus far been accomplished that affects general trade conditions. Great improvements have been made in methods of transportation and methods of preservation. Cold storage and canned goods have been the direction in which progress has been notable.