BUREAU OF STATISTICS. 701 



affecting the cost of sellincj and delivering grain and live stock from 

 farm to consumer, and to make note of changes which liave occurred 

 in these conditions in the past thirty years. 



An article on methods and costs of marketing was prepared in this 

 division for the Department's Yearbook for 1909. Various features 

 in the movements of a large number of different products from farm 

 to consumer were described, with especial reference to the part taken 

 by middlemen. 



WAGES OF FARM LABOR. 



The nineteenth investigation of the wage rates paid to farm labor 

 was begun in the autumn of 1909 and the w^ork was well advanced 

 toward completion at the end of the fiscal year 1909-10. All previous 

 investigations of farm wage rates liad been confined to the money 

 rate of wages, and hence had omitted many items of supplementary 

 wages in the form of house rent, firewood, laundry work, a"nd other 

 elements of real wages not incorporated in the money rates. 



The scope of this investigation has also been broadened so as to 

 include the cost of living of the farm laborer in comparison with his 

 cost of living as a street-railway employee or in any other occupation 

 in town or city, an important element of the real wages of the farm 

 laborer. 



This latest investigation has introduced these essential elements 

 into the examination of the earnings of farm labor with results that 

 establish a favorable comparison of the farm laborer with men in com- 

 peting occupations with respect to real wages. 



FOREIGN TRADE IN FARM AND FOREST PRODUCTS. 



The foreign trade of the United States in farm and forest products 

 is determined by the Division of Production and Distribution and by 

 no other ofRce in the Departmental service. The quantities and 

 values of the domestic exports, the imports, and the reexported 

 imports of all agricultural and forest commodities have been classi- 

 fied and tabulated as far back as ISol, an undertaking of several 

 years, which was completed in the fiscal year 1909-10. The tables 

 so made reveal tiie national surplus and the national foreign require- 

 ments in the products of the farm and forest during the last sixty 

 years, and present a large amount of information of much public 

 mterest. 



In continuation of the policy of providing the public wutli informa- 

 tion otherwise practically inaccessible concernmg the production, 

 value, foreign trade, and consumption of princij)al agricultural 

 products for this country from the earliest times, taoles for rice and 

 nons have been added to those for cotton, tobacco, and sugar for 



gublication in the agricultural statistics of the Yearbook of this 

 •epartment. 



D.VTES OF PLANTING AND HARVESTING. 



The subject of the dates of planting and harvesting crops through- 

 out the world has received constant attention during the year. It 

 has proved to be one of the most difiicult i)roJeets ever undertaken 

 by tlie Division of Production and Distribution and has required 



