XV 



AGRICULTURAL WAGES 

 Introduction 



The question of the return to the labor factor in agriculture the 

 wages of farm labor is one which has not as yet been analyzed with 

 sufficient thoroughness and penetration. Those economists who have 

 applied themselves to the problems of distribution have naturally 

 sought out the most clear-cut and completely differentiated cases 

 which they could find and have secured from these near-laboratory 

 conditions an insight into the fundamental laws which determine the 

 amounts of the various distributive shares. But the agricultural 

 economist must apply these theories under much more complex 

 conditions, where the line between the laborer, capitalist, landlord, 

 and entrepreneur functions is vastly more dubious than in incorporated 

 industry. There is difficulty in computing the amount of the labor 

 return in agriculture, not merely because it almost invariably is fused 

 into a joint return from other than labor contributions to production, 

 but likewise because it is partly paid in the form of " living," of increase 

 in capital (without any conscious process of saving), and of numerous 

 personal and domestic values of an intangible sort. These items are 

 often more important than the cash return. Sections A, B, and C 

 offer some suggestions and guidance in working out the general process 

 by which wage rates are determined. But to understand the precise 

 outcome of these wage-making forces in agriculture we must have 

 careful studies from varied agricultural conditions. Only in recent 

 years have serious beginnings been made toward supplying this need. 



Far too many of the statements of labor-returns in agriculture 

 which have passed current have dealt with the net cash income of 

 the farmer rather than with his real wages, overlooking the value of 

 what was consumed directly from the produce of the farm. Selections 

 263 and 264 indicate the progress which has been made in methods of 

 measuring the income which the farm worker actually secures in 

 return for his labor, and selection 265 points out some further con- 

 siderations necessary to the proper comparison of one time with 

 another to ascertain Lie trend of real wages. 



796 



