632 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



are as blithe and buoyant as a bird; her thoughts as light and airy as the 

 sky-blown thistledown. She clings to your hand in the morning and 

 is eager for your homecoming when the shadows fall, being ofttimes 

 found peeping through the panel of the gate, where her greeting is in- 

 genious and sincere. She is the new woman with the world before her, 

 and with her toys and playhouse she is waiting for the future, and you 

 press her to your bosom while she waits. Yet a few years, and other 

 haunts shall know her and other hearts be hers, and then, too, other care§ 

 may come. But though the home nest has been long deserted and many 

 years have flown, she is still to you the little burst of sunshine and un- 

 broken package of delight, while her baby words with beveled edges 

 catch the ear; and though you are a century old, your heart is a hundred 

 years young, and then you understand Him who said: "Suffer little chil- 

 dren to come unto me, and forbid them not," for the best thing on earth 

 is the little tot. 



HOURS OF LABOR, WAGES, AND COST OF BOARD ON MINNESOTA 



FARMS.* 

 (U. S. Department of Agriculture, Farmers' Bulletin 366.) 



In connection with an exhaustive study of the cost of producing farm 

 crops and feeding and caring for live stock on Minnesota farms, statistical 

 data have been collected regarding the hours of labor, the cost of farm 

 labor, and the value of the food of the family, including both the articles 

 purchased and the articles produced on the farm. These statistics are 

 of interest in themselves and are also an essential part of the discussion 

 of the cost of producing farm crops and stock. 



Farms were selected first in three, then in five, counties in western, 

 northwestern, southeastern and southwestern Minnesota, and data were 

 systematically gathered in a number of farm homes in these counties. 

 The investigations were instituted by Assistant Secretary Willet M. Hays 

 (then professor of agriculture at the Minnesota College of Agriculture) 

 and have been carried on by the Minnesota Experiment Station co- 

 operating with the Bureau of Statistics of this department. 



According to E. C. Parker and T. P. Cooper, who reported the latest 

 of these investigations, the average monthly cash wages of farm laborers 

 on the selected farms for the years 1904-1907, during the eight "crop- 

 season" months, April 1 to November 30, were approximately as follows: 

 Northfield, Rice County (1905-1907), $26.16; Marshall, Lyon County, $26.64; 

 Halstad, Norman County, $25.56, and a large farm in northwestern Min- 

 nesota, Norman County, $26.77. During the months of December, January, 

 February and March the average monthly wage at Northfield was $15.80; 

 Marshall, $14.20; Halstad, $11.69, and the large farms in northwestern 

 Minnesota, $14.36. 



The average cash value per hour of farm labor on all the farms, for 

 the three years 1905-1907, was 11.2 cents for December, January, February 



* Compiled from Minnesota Sta. Bui. 97; U. S. Dept. Agr., Bur. Statis Buls. 

 73; Jour. Home Econ., (1909), No. 1, pp. 4351. 



