REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE. 7 



farm equipment and live stock have gone through the same experi- 

 ence and have lost everything. A pathetic picture which illustrates 

 this comes in a letter from a farmer in a western State. He writes : 



"Our neighbor joining us on the east, a hard-working man, had 

 rented 320 acres of land. He and his wife and one hired man 

 farmed it. They had about 100 head of cattle and about the same 

 number of hogs. The 1st of December they turned everything over 

 to the landlord, save one team, which they hitched to an old wagon, 

 put in their household goods, got in the wagon themselves, and 

 drove away to town to get work at day labor and make a new start 

 in life." 



Most farmers have succeeded in maintaining themselves and their 

 hold on the land by the exercise of the most rigid economy. They 

 have refrained from buying anything they could possibly get along 

 without. This enforced economy has contributed very much to the 

 difficulties of manufacturers, dealers, and retailers, who are largely 

 dependent upon farmers for their customers. Manufacturers of 

 farm implements and machinery especially have suffered, farm pur- 

 chases of such having decreased enormously since the summer of 

 1920. The result of this has been a steady depreciation in farm 

 equipment. 



Labor cost of production has been greatly reduced, both by lower 

 wages paid farm hands and the reduction in the amount of labor 

 employed. In the case of farm wages, in 1922 they were but 36 

 per cent above the 1913 level, having declined 38 per cent of the 

 high level of 1920. Perhaps the larger reduction in labor cost of 

 production, however, has come through longer hours and harder 

 work by the farmer, the farmer's wife, and the farmer's children. 

 To some extent the work of the children has been 'at the expense 

 of their education, a matter in which the entire Nation may well 

 feel concerned. 



In addition to rigid economy in the purchase of such things as 

 implements, machinery, and in the making of needed improve- 

 ments, apparently there has been a much to be regretted reduction 

 in the farmer's standard of living. It is not possible to measure 

 this with any degree of accuracy, but our reports show that for 

 the year ending August 1, 1922, there were* slaughtered on the 

 farms 10 per cent fewer hogs than in the year 1921 and 20 per 

 cent fewer than in the year 1920. 

 25684— AGE 1923 2 



