SCIENCE 



FRIDAY, JUNE 15, li 



The last report of the statistician of the Agricuhural De- 

 partment presents some interesting data for the students of eco- 

 nomics in that portion of it which deals with farm-labor and its 

 wages. Curiously enough, the result of the May, 1888, investiga- 

 tion of wages of farm-labor is almost identical with that of three 

 years ago. The changes are very slight, though local differences 

 occur, the averages of the geographical sections or groups of States 

 being changed very little. The average rate per month, where the 

 laborer boards himself, is a few cents lower in the Middle and 

 Western States and in California, and a very little higher in the 

 South and in New England. The highest rates obtained in 1866 in 

 the Northern and Western States. In California and in the South 

 there was a positive advance between that date and 1869. The 

 investigation of 1875, a year or two after the monetary crisis ap- 

 peared, showed decline in each section, which continued for several 

 years, culminating in 1879, the date of lowest prices of all Ameri- 

 can farm-products. The decline from 1866 to 1879 amounted to 

 39 per cent in the Eastern States, 35 in the Middle, 30 in the West- 

 ern States, and 17 in the Southern States. In California the rate 

 of averages was well sustained, rising at first, but standing in 1879 

 higher than in 1866. 



By a carefully constructed diagram Mr. Dodge shows the course 

 ■of prices for more than twenty years, and the diagram is a forcible 

 picture of the fearful depression caused by the six years of panic, 

 irom which a slow recovery began in 1879. The sharp decline 

 from 1886, except in California, where the highest point after the 

 •war is noted in 1869, is a fall from an era of inflation, in which 

 speculative values were all the higher from being stated in a depre- 

 ciated currency. The present values appear to be on a more nat- 

 ural and stable basis. The rise was coincident with the return to 

 specie payments, and the natural level was reached by a bound as 

 soon as the pressure which depressed was removed. It is curious 

 to note, further, that, at the lowest ebb of wages, rates were higher 

 in the West than in the Middle States, and slightly above the 

 lowest point reached in the Eastern States, because the soil was 

 still cultivated, and crops were grown in their usual quantity, while 

 much of the manufacturing industry was suspended. This West- 

 ern line of wages would not have dipped so low but for the immi- 

 gration to the West of Eastern operatives and artisans out of work, 

 seeking employment and future homes. 



There is a sufficiency of farm-labor in this country, as a whole, 

 with a comparatively even balance between the geographical divis- 

 ions. There are localities in perhaps every State where scarcity 

 ■exists, and others having a superabundance. There is in some 

 places a scarcity of agricultural labor caused by demand at higher 

 wages for labor in some specific local industry. There is reported 

 now, as always heretofore, a tendency to exercise distinctive pref- 

 erences, and encourage peculiar aptitudes, for professions and 

 avocations outside of agriculture, generally leading away from the 

 country to the town or city. A temporary disturbance of the re- 

 lation between demand and supply is found in some localities as a 

 result of a somewhat rapid change in the character of the rural in- 

 ■dustries pursued. Where general farming has been partly replaced 



by an extension of pastoral industry, the effect has been to reduce 

 the demand for labor; but in other cases there is a notable increase 

 in gardening and fruit-growing, which occasion a large increase in 

 the labor required for the cultivation of a given area. The con- 

 tinued development of truck-farming, near many of the navigable 

 waters and some of the railroad-lines of the South, affords a con- 

 spicuous example of the latter class of changes. ■ 



A considerable number of reports from the more Atlantic coast 

 States, and from some farther West, mention the migration of 

 laborers as a cause of a noticeable reduction in the supply of labor. 

 Usually the movement is simply a part of the general westward 

 drift of population, but there are some movements of a more 

 limited and special character. In Mississippi, for example, the 

 reports from certain counties mention the departure of many 

 colored laborers to the richer lands of the Mississippi bottoms or of 

 the Yazoo delta, and a similar movement from a thin upland soil to 

 river-bottom lands is also mentioned by some correspondents in 

 Louisiana and Arkansas. Some reports from Virginia and North 

 Carolina mention the departure of many colored people for the 

 North. Others from the same and other States refer to a move- 

 ment southward. Some Alabama reports mention a movement of 

 colored laborers to settle on public land in that State as home- 

 steaders. One North Carolina report, that from Cabarrus County, 

 states that forty colored men had left for California, but the labor- 

 supply in the neighborhood from which they had gone was still 

 sufficient. In some localities, however, a considerable deficiency is 

 reported as a result of such migrations. 



The contest in the New York City Board of Education has 

 resulted in the re-election of Mr. Jasper as superintendent by a vote 

 of twelve to nine ; and the political ring whose servant he is, is ju- 

 bilant. It is safe to say, however, that the triumph is but a tem- 

 porary one : for public opinion is arousing, and a public education 

 society has been formed for the purpose of carrying on the agita- 

 tion. The leading educators of the city, representative clergymen 

 and lawyers, and not a few of the would-be progressive public- 

 school teachers, met on Saturday last, and laid the foundations for 

 the new society. It will, if we understand aright, take up the task 

 of educating public opinion, and possibly will demand the appoint- 

 ment of a commission to investigate the schools and report a plan 

 or plans for their improvement. This would be an excellent step, 

 more especially as the present mayor enjoys the fullest confidence 

 of the community, and could be safely trusted to appoint a commis- 

 sion that would do its work thoroughly and well. An attempt 

 should also be made to displace the ringsters whose terms expire 

 this year with better men. Four of the seven whose terms expire in 

 December should on no account be re-appointed. The importance 

 of this is well understood, and already representative citizens, like 

 Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi and Col. R. T. Auchmuty, are suggested 

 for the vacancies. 



The Springfield, Mass., Reptiblican, in commenting on the condi- 

 tion of affairs, says that " the re-election of John Jasper as superin- 

 tendent of the public schools of New York was a foregone conclu- 

 sion. The Board of Education was as much on trial as the super- 

 intendent himself. The board exercises many of the prerogatives 

 which in other cities belong to the superintendent, and it could not 



