4 AMERICAN FARMS. 



get for the year about $250, including board at 20 cents 

 per day. This estimate would throw the farmer $200 

 behind the laborer in the way of income ; if he charges 

 his business with the $300 interest, which his capital is 

 entitled to. If he charges his time and that of his family 

 at the rate received by the laborer ; he will have nothing 

 for his capital. In any case, the laborer, without a cent 

 invested in the business, will be able to save as much, 

 perhaps more, at the end of each year, than the farmer, 

 with all his capital. What is the matter ? Is the laborer 

 getting too much ? Perhaps not ; not in proportion to 

 the share of the national income received by many others 

 about him. But why this anomalous condition in refer- 

 ence to agriculture ? 



The average farm proprietor of this community is as 

 fine a type of man as the average in any city or country 

 in North America, — frugal, industrious, intelligent, quick 

 of wit, and ambitious beyond the average man. 



The conclusion from a large number of schedules of 

 farmers' incomes, furnished by farmers themselves, 

 strengthens our suspicion that something is wrong ; that 

 in this community of fine farms, and intelligent farmers, 

 the majority of them are supporting families, paying 

 taxes, and forming the fund for the rainy day, out of an 

 average annual income of less than $350. We have for 

 some time entertained the opinion that thousands of 

 our land proprietors, on less fruitful lands, are, in this 

 fair country, forced to meet the necessities of life for 

 their families, and pay the demands made upon them by 

 society, out of less than $250 per year. We wonder if 

 to such it is not necessary that Providence deal kindly ; 

 that illness be infrequent, and of short duration ; and 

 that frugality of the strictest character, be practised ! 



