40 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



to $75 a month for a single man, averaged from $35 to 

 this year for the same work. In some communities farmers 

 were hiring help at a reduced wage, from which the men were 

 obliged to furnish their own room and board. The exceptions 

 to the lowered wage standard were the dairy or other farmers 

 operating on a large scale, or others who had particular labor 

 requirements for which a high wage was maintained. Owing 

 to the scarcity of opportunities, the higher grade workers, such 

 as farm foremen and managers, made few changes of position 

 in the spring, and there was consequently little call for this class 

 of worker. 



Three hundred and fifty farm helpers registered and filed 

 applications during the spring and summer months. One 

 hundred of these are recorded as having found emploj^ment on 

 farms. One hundred and fifty-four others were referred to em- 

 ployers and co-operating agencies, and it is safe to figure that 

 at least 50 per cent, if not more, of this number found similar 

 employment through these sources. Because of the indirect 

 connection made, through letters between the farmer who lives 

 at a distance and the employee, and the placements through 

 co-operating agencies, there is little opportunity for accurate 

 records. Particular effort has been made to find suitable places 

 for those men, who, through training or natural inclinations, 

 wish to go into agriculture permanently. There are many 

 young men who, having sufficient capital at their disposal, 

 wish to gain practical experience as farm laborers before in- 

 vesting in the purchase of a farm. Such men, although in- 

 experienced at the outset, usually make earnest, intelligent 

 workers, and prove an asset to the farmer for whom they are 

 working. Several such men have been among those who found 

 farm openings. 



This is the first year since the war that the farmer has found 

 labor sufficiently plentiful to make his own selection at the 

 figure he could aft'ord to pay. 



Listing and Advertising Farms for Sale. 

 Owing to the large number of calls which have come to the 

 Department of Agriculture, many from without the State, re- 

 garding the purchase of abandoned farm lands, it was deemed 



