RURAL. ECONOMICS. 91 



recently compiled by the tariff board sbowing the average amount of wages 

 paid by the day or month to farm laborers in the United States and Canada 

 in 1909. It is shown that the average monthly rate of wages to farm hands 

 without board in tjie United States in 1910 was $27.50 as compared with $18.33 

 in 1S90. 



Mathematical distribution of wages, O. Baixauff {IUus. Landw. Ztg., 31 

 {1911), 'So. 11, pp. 85, 86). — The author, after discussing the economic sig- 

 nificance of the division of labor, deals more specifically with the subject 

 of computation and mathematical distribution of wages as related to the 

 various divisions of the operation of agricultural products, and determining 

 the limit and application of wages as to the various operations of production. 

 He goes into the subject of farm accounting, shows the possibility of having 

 a careful and exact method of reckoning wages, and discusses the merits 

 and defects of the different systems upon which wages are paid. The piecework 

 system is considered the simplest and most practical and has the advantage 

 of inducing the laborer to greater performance. 



Report of the select committee on agricultural cooperation (Rpt. Select 

 Com. Agr. Coop. [Cape Good Hope], 1907, pp. XXXII+522).— In addition to 

 the testimony and other evidence collected by a special committee appointed to 

 investigate the workings of agricultural cooperation and the advances made 

 by the government for that purpose, the report states the findings and recom- 

 mendations of the committee. Out of fSo,491 lis. 8d. advanced during the 

 period under review to various organizations and groups of individuals £41,652 

 15s. 2d. was advanced to wineries ; £32,125 17s. Sd. to creameries ; £7,275 to 

 fencing syndicates ; £1,959 to preserving companies ; £595 18s. 2d. to boring 

 syndicates; £375 to thrashing sjmdicates; and £130 lis. 2d. to live stock 

 improvement syndicates. 



The report shows that there is a lack of cooperation on the part of applicants 

 for loans and that the government has made advances out of all proportion 

 to the pecuniary interest of the members of the associations. In an illustration 

 cited the government advanced £11,000, and the actual cash payments by share- 

 holders of the cooperative society amounted to only £101, or less than 1 per 

 cent of the sum advanced by the government. 



The committee recommends that the government should not encourage or 

 assist any society unless it is satisfied with the proposed management; that 

 the loans should not exceed the face value of the issued capital, at least 

 25 per cent of which should be paid up before any loan is advanced; and 

 that moneys loaned should be used in connection with operating expenses and 

 not in payment of outstanding debts. 



While the committee finds that misfortunes have befallen some of the 

 efforts in cooi^eration it is of the opinion that the utility of the movement has 

 been established and that farmers in their own interest will have to continue 

 to develop it. 



A traveling bank for farmers, D. G. Ricaed (Agr. Econ., 4i (1911), No. 496, 

 p. 91). — The article states that in order to induce the farmers in the up-country 

 districts of the Cape and Transvaal and Orange River Colony to appreciate 

 the advantage and safety of depositing their money in the care of a bank, 

 a system of banking by motor car is in full operation. " The cars are fitted 

 with a safe and desk, and the clerk in charge of the car receives deposits and 

 pays out in checks. A regular route is arranged so that the people know when 

 to expect the car. The cars call at the doors of the farmhouses ' for orders.' " 

 The farmers at first manifested a great deal of distrust, but it is noted that 

 this is gradually giving way. 



