AGRICULTURAL WAGES 8n 



when they are needed on the farm. One farmer has a stone quarry 

 which is worked only when the labor on the farm is not sufficient to 

 give employment to the men. Other farmers make brooms in the 

 winter and at odd tunes at other seasons. 



In the middle latitudes and in the South it is possible to plan 

 cropping systems that will give regular employment to labor without 

 these side industries. In this manner the area of land which one man 

 or any definite number of men can farm is greatly increased. This 

 means a larger yearly income per individual employed. Even if a 

 crop grown returns a very small profit, if the work it demands comes 

 at a season when the farmer would otherwise be idle, it adds just so 

 much to the farm income without appreciably increasing the expenses. 

 Other things being equal, those farms which have the largest variety 

 of products to sell are the most profitable. The main reason for this 

 is that these farms have a variety of interests that permit the farmer 

 and his family and his hired labor to find profitable employment at 

 all seasons of the year, while on farms with less varied interests there 

 are frequently periods when there is no profitable employment. 



Speaking in a general way, a system of farm management which 

 calls for approximately the same amount of labor at all seasons of 

 the year not only greatly increases the area which a given force can 

 farm, but, in many cases at least, increases the income of the farmer 

 in approximately the same proportion. Hence, under most conditions 

 it is wise for the farmer to follow a system that will give his labor 

 permanent employment. There are instances where farmers delib- 

 erately grow crops that are not profitable in order to keep their labor 

 employed so that they will be at hand when needed on crops that are 

 profitable, and this course appears to be justifiable under certain 

 conditions. 



There are a few crops, such as cotton, and alfalfa in certain sec- 

 tions, that of themselves furnish employment during nearly the whole 

 year. This is one of the reasons why the single-crop cotton-growing 

 system has been able to persist indefinitely in our Southern States. 

 But even in the case of cotton a farmer can grow some winter hay 

 and other crops to a considerable extent without decreasing the 

 acreage of cotton he can manage, and thus increase considerably the 

 area of land he can farm properly, as well as his annual income. 



So to plan the work of a farm as to distribute the labor equally 

 throughout the year is no small task. The difficulty of doing so is 

 attested by the small number of farms on which this task has been 



