THE FARMERS' CABINET, 



AND 



AMERICAN HERD-BOOK, 



DEVOTED TO 

 AGRICULTURE, HORTICULTURE, AND RURAL AND DOMESTIC AFFAIRS. 



" The Productions of the Earth will always be in proportion to tlie culture bestowed upon it." 



Vol. VI.— No. 3.] 



10th mo. (October,) 15th, 1841. 



[Whole No. 81. 



KIMBER & SHARPLESS 



PROPRIETORS AND PUBLISHERS, 



No. 50 North Fourth Street, 



PHILADELPHIA. 

 Price one dollar per year. — For conditions see last page. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 High "Wages. 



It is often said, and almost universally be- 

 lieved, that the high rate of wages paid for 

 labour in this country is a very serious draw- 

 back on the profits of farming. " Yes," it is 

 6aid, " I, too, would have my fields free from 

 weeds, if I could get the labour done for the 

 price they give in Europe :" and even sensi- 

 ble and well-informed persons are often heard 

 to declare that farming can never pay for 

 hired labour, remarking: "There are few 

 weeds that are worth a dollar a day for pull- 

 ing!" Then there is no trutli in our motto, 

 and agriculture is indeed the only business 

 that will not pay interest for capital in- 

 vested. 



But it ought to be shown that the business 

 of agriculture flourishes in every country in 

 proportion to the rate of wages paid ; when 

 that is lowest, agriculture should pay the best 

 — but is it so"? Is it a fact that farming is 

 more profitable in England, where labour is 

 374 cents a day, often as low as 25 ? Or in 

 Ireland, where the regular farm labourer in 

 the most favourable circumstances, does not 

 receive more than a dollar a week without 

 diet, or seventy-five cents with it; showing 

 the nature of that diet which, for a whole 

 week, is valued at 25 cents only ; eating meat 

 but three times a year, and a single herring 

 serving a whole family at the dinner meal by 

 way of condiment; with oatmeal, only when 

 the old crop becomes bad, or the new is unfit 

 for use ] Or in France, where from 8 to 12 

 cents are the customary wages for men ; and 

 for women, who are by far the best labourers 

 — carrying the dung to the fields in baskets on 

 their backs, and breaking clods on the ploughed 

 land with boards fixed to their feet — the wages 

 are still less ] Or in Prussia-Poland, that gra- 

 nary of Europe, where, Jacob says, in travel- 

 ling through Saxony, Poland, Prussia, Aus- 

 tria, Bavaria, and Wurtemburg, he never saw, 

 either in the hotels, the bakers' shops, or pri- 1 



Cab.— Vol. VI No. 3. 



vate houses, a single loaf of wheaten-bread ! 

 where the whole profit arising to the owner 

 of an estate of 6300 acres, in his capacity of 

 owner and tenant, amounted to no more than 

 the clip of his wool ; the wages of the best la- 

 bourers not averaging ten cents a day, with 

 plenty of good land to rent at 28 cents an 

 acre, a larger quantity at 18 cents, and some 

 at 12 cents ! — and even at these rents and 

 low wages, the farmers being able to pay no 

 more than their taxes, and often ten years in 

 arrear with them ; they themselves often 

 wanting the bare necessaries of life, and feel- 

 ing happy if they have a surplus to meet the 

 demands annually made for the payment of 

 their local assessments. And thus, on a pat- 

 tern farm of 3000 acres, managed with skill 

 by the proprietor himself, with no rent to pay, 

 no profit had been made for the last four or 

 five years; while on another farm of 4000 

 acres, within twelve miles of the city of War- 

 saw, with an excellent road, and renting for 

 seven cents an acre only, on a six years' 

 lease, the tenant is compelled to pay the 

 whole amount of rent out of his private capi- 

 tal ! Or is it in Russia 1 — where, on an es- 

 tate of 130,560 acres, the agricultural labour, 

 including the team, is paid with 12 cents, and 

 other manual labour with 8 cents per day ! 

 — where, although the large quantity of pro- 

 duce cannot be disposed of in the country, 

 and in the midst of this plenty, distress is 

 universal, and is felt the most severely where 

 provisions are cheapest ! There is then fa- 

 mine without dearth, hunger amidst abund- 

 ance of provisions ; farmers without markets, 

 and labourers without the means to purchase. 

 In the fall of prices, famine originates; the 

 fall preventing the tenant from paying his 

 rent; the landlord himself, bound by debts 

 and contracts, is unable to make abatement; 

 and then the miserable stock of the wretched 

 tenantry is seized ; the labourer is left totally 

 destitute and without employment; and then 

 ensues a scene of famine and despair, of tu- 

 mult and bloodshed, only to be suppressed by 

 military force! It is in these countries of 

 low wages that the farmers may be seen 

 guiding the plough drawn by a single cow, 

 led by the farmer's wife — a very common 

 team — with implements of the meanest order, 

 the harness without iron or leather; the wa- 

 gons, mere planks set against upright stakes 



(73) 



