32 City Homes on Country Lanes 



but the latter is but 3 or 4 per cent in the best farming 

 regions.) Government investigations in three repre- 

 sentative areas Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa showed an 

 average labor income of $408. In Indiana it was $310 ; 

 in Illinois, $622; in Iowa, $291. Cornell University 

 studied some of the most thriving agricultural districts 

 in New York State, with this result: 



"The average owner received $423 as pay for his 

 personal labor and management for a year; but there 

 were wide variations from this amount. The common 

 wages of a hired man in this region (pre-war) are $300 

 to $350, with house rent, garden, wood and milk. 

 Some of the men receive more. Roughly speaking, we 

 may say that one-third of the owners made less than 

 their hired men, one-third made about the same as the 

 hired men, and one-third more than hired men." 



Practically the same results were found in the case of 

 tenants. Whether owner, tenant, or hireling, the man 

 on the land receives about the same pay for labor. The 

 average capital requirement for a 160-acre farm in 

 Indiana, Illinois and Iowa was found to be $30,606 

 more than most men possess, or will ever possess. 



Diligent search has failed to reveal any figure as a 

 basis for comparison of average urban income with 

 average rural income. The income of urban people, of 

 course, taking all elements into account, covers an 

 immense range. Somewhere between the depths of pov- 

 erty and the heights of affluence lies the sea level that 

 one would wish to find on this side of the subject, as 

 we found it on the rural side. 



There is very good reason for saying that the aver- 



