404 



CHIPS. 



[Oct. li 



Chips. 



Government Planting Contract. — 

 The Mexican Government ha.s made a 

 contract with Mr. Oscar A. Droege to 

 plant 2,000,000 trees in the valley of 

 Mexico within four years. The con- 

 tractor pledges himself to 80,000 ash, 

 35,000 willows, 120,000 poplars, 60,000 

 eucalyptus trees, 60,000 trcenosjapones, 

 60,000 mountain cypress cedars, 60,090 

 acacias, and 120,000 of miscellaneous 

 varieties. The trees must be in plan- 

 tations of from 50,000 to 100,000 each. 



Ventnor, Isle of Wight. — At 

 Steephill Cattle, an Araiicaria imhri- 

 cata, about 40 feet high, has had nearly 

 40 cones, each twice the size of ordinary 

 cocoa-nuts, this season. A Ckamcerops 

 Forhmii, one of Robert Fortune's palms 

 introduced from China, has been in full 

 bloom throughout the season at East 

 Dene, near Ventnor. 



Wages of Farm Labour in the 

 United States. — In 1866 an investi- 

 gation was made to ascertain the pre- 

 vailing remuneration of farm labour, 

 whether employed by the year, the 

 season, or during the hay or wheat har- 

 vest. The payment is reckoned by the 

 month for the longer periods, and by 

 the day for harvest work. Two usages 

 prevail : payment wholly in c;\sh, the 

 laboui-er in one case providing his own 

 board and lodging, and in the other 

 receiving board as part of his compen- 

 sation. Tlie difference in the rate 

 represents the assumed value of board, 

 and differs according to the cost of 

 living, being less in the west than in 

 the east, and still less in the south. In 

 the south the wages system is less jjro- 

 minent, though everywhere in use. 

 The change from voluntary servitude 

 in a large class of labour was naturally, 

 and pei-haps necessarily, attended with 

 too much uncertainty, too wide a range 

 of efficiency and value, for the cash 

 wages plan ; hence a system of share 

 contracts were introduced, which still 

 prevails to a considerable extent. It 

 was found, in 1866, that the average 

 for white labour was 28 dols. per month, 

 and 15.50 dols. with board, this wide 

 difference being caused by the high 

 prices prevailing for food products, and 

 especially for other expenses of living. 

 An accepted estimate of thirty years 

 before made 9 dols. per month, with 

 board, the average cost of farm labour. 

 An advance of 70 per cent, is thus 



indicated, much the larger part of it 

 between 1861 and 1866. But this high 

 rate was not to be fully maintained, as 

 currency depreciated in value as prices 

 fell and normal conditions returned. 

 In 1869 the rate for labour paid fully 

 in cash was 25.13 dols., a reduction 

 liaving occurred in the west, some de- 

 cline in the east, while in the south an 

 advance had resulted from increasing 

 efficiency in labour and rising confidence 

 in its reliability. In 1875 a further de- 

 cline had occurred ; the reduction in six 

 years beingfrom 32.08dols.to 28.96dol-i. 

 in the east, from 28.02 dols. to 26.02 

 dols. in the middle States, and from 

 27.01 dols. to 23.60 dol.s. in the west. 

 The average rate with board was 

 12.41 dols., which is only 3 09 dols. 

 less than in 1866. The difference 

 was therefore more in the reduced 

 allowance, and the reduction, though 

 material, was less than it seemed. In 

 the following period of cumulating 

 effect of the depression, culminating in 

 1879, there was much labour unem- 

 ployed, an excess of rural labourers, an 

 abnormal reduction of wages, from 

 which a gradual recovery resulted, 

 which in 1882 had raised the rate 

 nearly to the level of 1879, quite up to 

 it in the western States. Thus during 

 twenty years past wages were higher 

 in 1866 than at the date of another in- 

 quiry, except on the Pacific coast and 

 in the south. The decline continued to 

 1879, and amounted to 39 per cent, in 

 the eastern States, 35 in the middle 

 States, 30 in the western States, and 17 

 in the southern States. Wages have 

 been best sustained in California, being 

 now higher than in 1866. Comparing 

 the rates of the present day with those 

 of 1875, the decline is least in the west, 

 being less than 6 per cent., 11 in the 

 middle States, 12 in the south, and 13 

 in tlie eastern States and California. — 

 Rural Record. 



Forest Fires. — According to the 

 Timber World, the loss to the United 

 States through forest fires is now not 

 less than 300,000,000 dollars a year, a 

 sum equal to the interest on the public 

 debts of all the civilized nations of the 

 world, through the carelessness of boys 

 and hunters. Locomotives should use 

 spark arresters during the dry season, 

 and underbrush from the woodland 

 ought to be systematically removed. 



