FARM LABOR AND WAGES 173 



138. 1 in 1910. But the average improved acres increased 

 from 72.2 to 75.2 per farm. This implies a more complete 

 utilization of the farm. The total number of acres of land per 

 person engaged in agriculture was about 81 in 1900 and about 

 70 in 1910. Thus, in spite of the fact that the investment in 

 farm implements and machinery increased from about 90 cents 

 per acre to $1.44 per acre, each person engaged in agriculture 

 operated on the average 13.5 fewer acres. This means more 

 intensive utilization of the land or less work per man. More 

 work may take the form of milking cows. In Wisconsin and 

 Minnesota where dairying was on the increase, the acreage per 

 man decreased. In Nebraska and Kansas there was an in- 

 crease in the number of acres per man. In Indiana, Illinois, 

 Michigan, and North Dakota, the ratio changed but little. 

 In these grain states new types of machinery would tend to 

 have this effect. That is, the more intensive farming was 

 accomplished by means of more equipment instead of more 

 labor. 



The demand for labor is not an absolute thing. In fact it 

 is quite flexible. The farmer can make use of more or less labor 

 depending upon the cost of that labor. The farmer can operate 

 his farm so as to use much or little labor. He can plow his land 

 or graze it ; he can feed his grain to cattle or he can sell it ; he 

 can keep steers and hogs or he can keep milch cows. Which 

 he should do depends upon which pays best with a given wage 

 scale. The higher the wage the greater the inclination to get 

 along with less help and to choose a type of farming which 

 makes one free from the hired man. 



Many farmers who own farms and are so well-to-do as to 

 desire to hire all the work done on their farms, avoid the whole 

 farm labor problem by moving off the farm and putting, as 

 share tenant on the farm, a younger man who expects to work 

 hard and who has a family willing to help with the farm work. 

 The farmer who stays with the farm and faces the farm labor 

 question finds that his reward is little greater than that of his 

 neighbor who turns over to a tenant the problem of getting the 

 work done. 



