FARM MACHINERY 79 



The Department of Agriculture has also reported on the 

 "wages of farm labor per month, by year or season, with board," 

 for the year 1902. 1 The average rate for the whole United 

 States is given as $16.40; but the average rates for the several 

 geographical divisions are not given. In a letter dated September 

 16, 1904, the secretary states that it was deemed unwise for the 

 department so to extend the report on this last investigation. He 

 suggests, however, that for the purposes of this study it would 

 be allowable to make use of such "apparent" averages as are 

 indicated by the published report. Agreeable to this suggestion, 

 I have averaged the wages reported for the states in the several 

 groups and secured the following as the average wage rates in 

 1902 : Eastern States, $19.85 ; Middle States, $16.61 ; South- 

 ern States, $11.85; Western States, $19.48; Mountain States, 

 $28.91 ; Pacific States, $27.90. These figures are averages of 

 averages and must, therefore, be taken with some allowance. 

 Accepting as true the average rate for the several states as re- 

 ported by the department, the rate here given for the Middle 

 States .is clearly too low, since Delaware, whose wage rate was 

 $13.81, is given equal weight with New York, whose wage rate 

 was $19.65. The rate here given for the Pacific States is like- 

 wise too low, since Oregon, whose wage rate was $25.98, is given 

 equal weight with California, whose wage rate was $29.38. For 

 the Southern and for the Western States the rate here given is 

 probably too high, the highest rates being reported for the less 

 populous states. For the other groups the rates here given are 

 approximately correct. 



By reference to the accompanying tables it may readily be seen 

 that the average rate of wages for the whole of the United States 



New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Idaho; Pacific States Washington, Oregon, 

 California" (U.S. Uept. Agr., Division of Statistics, Misc. Bulletin No. 22, p. 16). 



The data for the years prior to 1879 have been changed to a gold basis and a 

 correction has been made, of what was evidently a clerical error, in the rate 

 reported for the Western States in 1866. For the purpose of making this correc- 

 tion the cost of board in the Western States, in 1866, was assumed to have been 

 the same as in the Pacific States, where wages without board were practically the 

 same at that date as in the Western States. 



1 U.S. Dept. Agr., Division of Statistics, Misc. Bulletin No. 26, p. 15. 



