192 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



April 



increase wages, yet in populous, central sec- 

 tions oi'the country, with easy communication 

 by rail and water, the rates are nearly uniform, 

 especially with board. The Territories, such 

 as Nevada and Colorado, are of course excep- 

 tional, andfchow very high prices. And in the 

 South ihe disturbed state of affairs, following 

 the emancipation of the slaves, renders the rate 

 of wages comparatively low. 



In those States where regular labor is most 

 general among the inhabitants, and where it is 

 prosecuted in the greatest variety, laborers, as 

 a rule, receive the highest wages. ]\Jassachu- 

 setts is given as an illustration. With a poor 

 soil, and not pi-operly an agricultural State, 

 and wiih only G9,G.j6 laborers in agricultural 

 pursuits to 27 1 ,241 employed in mechanic arts, 

 as the State census of 1865 shows, she pays 

 higher monthly wages for farm labor than any 

 other State except California, viz., $38.94 

 wi'hout board. This, it is argued, is the result 

 of the great variety of labor in the State, bring- 

 ing consumers and producers nearer together. 

 Another cause of high rates of labor in this 

 country is the superior Intelligence and activity 

 of the laboring classes. 



The difference between wages without and 

 with board varies quite regularly with the cost 

 of staple articles of food ; being higher East 

 than West, and higher in the Territories than 

 in the States. In the South, the food of the 

 laborer consisting mostly of one or two articles, 

 such as corn and bacon, the price of board is 

 quite low. Thus in the Northern States the 

 difference between the average of wages with 

 board and without is $12.51 per month. In 

 the Southern States, where the laborers are 

 mostly frcedmcn, the difference is only $G.26 

 per month. 



Tables are al.-o given showing the rate of 

 wages per day, and the average price paid in 

 the different States for specific items of labor, 

 such as harvesting and stacking wheat, hay, 

 corn, etc. The saine general result is attained 

 as in the rate per month. 



The rate of labor in Europe, as above re- 

 marked, is much less than in this country. In 

 England the average Income of a Avorklngman 

 is $5.()2 per week, but farm laborers receive a 

 little less than two-thirds as much, or on an av- 

 erage $0.50 per week. Allowing for holidays, 

 ptc., $168 is estimated as a year's earnings. 

 In this country the farm laborer gets, on an 

 average, $28 per month, or for eleven months 



$308, which, even in currency, will, dollar for 

 dollar, buy more food than the English labor- 

 er's cold. 



CHEMISTRY OF THE SEA. 

 Every number of the Boston Journal of 

 Chemistry and Pharmacy contains notices of 

 new discoveries in the arts and sciences, but es- 

 pecially in chemistry. The last number con- 

 tained some wonderful statements made in re- 

 gard to the color of the stars, their variable 

 brightness, and their sudden appearance and 

 disappearance in the heavens. Dr. James R. 

 Nichols, Editor of the Journal, says that 

 chemists are now studying the heavenly bodies 

 with as much Industry and zeal as astronomers, 

 and that through the wonderful results o{^ spec- 

 trum analysis, the chemical nature of the ma- 

 terials of which the stellar worlds are construct- 

 ed, is beginning to be understood. From an 

 editorial on the Chemistry of the Sea, we take 

 the two interesting articles given below. 



"Everything in nature certainly has some 

 palpable use. It is no accident or casual cir- 

 cumstance that the sea contains large quanti- 

 ties of the lime and magnesia salts. What 

 stupendous results How Irom this soluble car- 

 bonate of lime ! Without it where could shell- 

 fish procure their coverings, or the coral pol^'ps 

 the material for their curious structures .'' The 

 shell of the clam, the oyster, the snail, the 

 lobster, etc., is composed almost wholly of car- 

 bonate of lime ; from what source do the fish 

 obtain their calcareous coverings ? Young 

 oysters in two or three years accjuire a size 

 suited to be used as an article of human food. 

 The little gelatinous speck floating in the water 

 at birth has through some channel obtained 

 two or three ounces of solid stone armor in 

 the short space of tlilrt}' or forty months. It 

 had no power to chisel It from limestone cliffs, 

 and they are not always found in the vicinity 

 of calcareous deposits. It has absorbed or 

 drawn it from the water in which it moves ; no 

 other source supplies it. How immense are 

 the beds of shell-fish upon the shores of the 

 ocean ! what a vast concentration of the lime, 

 once held in solution, is effected by these fee- 

 ble creatures, ranked among the lowest In the 

 order of animate creation !" 



Iodine. — All deep sea plants are more or 

 less rich In iodine ; — [Iodine is used In medicine 

 as an irritant. — Ed.] but the Falmata digi- 

 iata, that leaiher-like and greasy weed, with 

 long roimd stalk and wide branches, has It in 

 great(!st abundance. The Irish call it tangle 

 or llcach, and it is found strewn along our 

 shores In large quantities after storms. But 

 even this holds but a very small (|uantity. 

 Every ounce of Iodine upon the shelves of the 



