265 



TalJe ilioiclng the average price of 'board per month of a<jrmdkiral laborers hired by the year. 



States. 



oilaine $9 



jM'ew Hampshire 10 



Vermont I 10 



Massachusetts I 11 



Kliode Island j 11 



Connecticut | 9 



!New York I 9 



New Jersey I 13 



Pennsylvania \ 10 



Delaware I 8 



Maryland 



"Virginia 



North Carolina 



Sonth Carolina 



Georgia 



Florida 



Alabama 



Mississippi 



Louisiana 



Texas 



Arkansas 



Tennessee 



West Virginia 



States. 



Kentucky 



Ohio 



Michigan , 



Indiana 



Illinois 



WiscoDfcin 



Minnesota 



Iowa 



Missouri 



Kansas 



Nebraska , 



California 



Oregon 



TEREITOKIES. 



Colorado 



Utah 



Washington 



Dakota 



New Mexico 



Montana 



Wyoming 



1875. 



$6 12 



7 72 

 9 76 



8 06 



8 13 



9 05 

 9 80 

 8 24 

 6 25 



8 55 



9 25 

 15 90 

 12 58 



17 36 

 10 17 

 10 17 

 12 00 

 8 50 

 15 00 

 15 00 



1869. 



|6 21 

 9 61 



10 98 



8 39 



9 63 



11 61 

 10 67 

 10 52 



8 09 

 10 58 

 14 07 

 17 G9 



1866. 



$6 58 

 9 50 

 10 78 



8 99 



9 82 

 10 97 



10 55 

 9 47 

 8 67 



11 22 

 13 73 

 15 35 



HARVESTING AIN'D GARNERINa. 



The following' summary from our reports shows the leading points in 

 the local usages in difl'erent parts of the country in harvesting and gar- 

 nering grain. It will be seen that thrashing is, in most eases, done by 

 a class of men who devote their time and capital to this business, at 

 least during a portion of the year. Boarding the hands is a custom 

 almost universal in all the States. The points of widest variation are 

 found in the respective amounts of labor and motive-power furnished 

 by the thrasher or the farmer. 



In New England, according to universal custom, the thrashing-ma- 

 chinery is owned by professional thrashers, who itinerate from farm to 

 farm, and thrash out the grain either for a specified sum per day or per 

 bushel, or for a toll of the thrashed grain, ranging from a fifteenth to a 

 tenth of the whole. The thrasher furnishes from two to four horses and 

 two men ; the farmer furnishes the other teams and labor. In several 

 counties in Northern JNew England the thrasher gets from $5 to $6 per 

 day, besides board for man and horse. The machines used in such cases 

 usually thrash 100 bushels of wheat or 200 bushels of oats per day; 

 hence, where the job is paid for by the bushel, wheat is charged at twice 

 the i)rice of oats ; wheat costs from 5 to 12 cents per bushel, and oats 

 from 1 to 7 cents. The highest cash-rates noted in New England coun- 

 ties is in Sagadahoc, Maine, where the thrasher receives 7 cents per 

 bushel for oats, 8 cents for barley, and 13 cents for wheat. In some 

 cases, the farmer hires the machine and runs it himself. Occasionally 

 the two-horse tread-machine is used, but in general the apparatus em- 

 ployed embraces the latest improvements, and requires from eight to 

 ten horses to drive it. No reports of steam-machinery in this region. 

 In many counties the grass-crop and dairy-farming have restricted grain- 

 raising to a very narrow area, rendering the thrashing operation so un- 

 imi)oitant that the use of machinery would not be profitable. In Nor- 

 folk, Massachusetts, thrashing is done almost entirely witli tlse flail. In 

 the three southern New England States, machinery, in both tbiashing 

 and harvesting, is used to only a limited extent, on account of the small 

 amount of grain-farming. 



