98 Farm Labour in the United States. [may, 



of a subsidy, viz., the United Steamship Company, from 

 Esbjerg to Parkstone (Harwich), and Esbjerg to Grimsby. 

 This subsidy was given to the Steamship Company to put on 

 three boats a week instead of two, on the Harwich route, 

 although the traffic did not warrant the increase ; but the 

 object of the extra boat was to secure more frequent delivery 

 from consignor to consumer. The total amount of the subsidy 

 voted by the Danish Government for this extra boat amounts 

 to 200,000 kroner, or ,£11,100 sterling, per annum. They 

 have also voted ^4,440 to run an extra boat per week from 

 Esbjerg to Grimsby. A condition of the subsidy was refriger- 

 ating chambers on all the boats. It was understood that none 

 of the boats carried a full cargo, and that without the subsidy 

 the extra boat was unwarranted by the amount of traffic, and 

 therefore would be run at a loss. 



FARM LABOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. 



The wages of farm labour in the United States formed the 

 subject of an enquiry conducted by the Department of Agri- 

 culture in 1902, in continuation of similar investigations which 

 have been conducted from time to time since the year 1866. 



The total number of agricultural labourers in the United 

 States, according to the Census of 1900, was 4,410,910, of whom 

 2,366,149 were members of the families of the farmers, leaving 

 only 2,044,761 persons hired on farms outside the farm families^ 

 or less than one hired labourer for every alternate farm. The 

 greater number of farmers in the country, therefore, do their own 

 work with the aid of their families, with occasional assistance 

 from neighbours. The tendency to special kinds of Work and 

 the disposition to do work by the job or piece, however, is 

 evidently on the increase, and every year it becomes more 

 difficult to give any correct view of farm wages in the form of 

 tables. Ploughing and hoeing by the acre, gathering fruits,, 

 digging root crops, picking or husking maize and threshing 

 grain by measure, cutting by the shcck and harvesting by the 



