28 
BULLETIN 1269, XT. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
higher than in 1913. The lowest level of wages, as compared with 
pre-war levels, was found in South Carolina and the highest in the 
Mississippi Delta. Wages on sugar-cane plantations in 1921 were 
around 50 per cent higher than in 1913, but the level of wages for 
rice labor was only 10 per cent above the pre-war level (Table 9). 12 
The labor cost for cotton picking has returned approximately to 
old levels. The range in 1921 was from 60 to 75 cents per 100 pounds, 
in most areas. The wages of women and children have been corre- 
spondingly reduced, being around 75 cents in 1921 instead of $1.25 
in 1920. 
It is interesting to note the ready adjustment of wages to financial 
conditions generally on plantations, as compared with industrial 
sections. 
Wages paid extra hands practically equal those of regular day 
hands for the same work, although in some sections they are slightly 
Wages on Plantations ■ 
SELECTED PLANTATION AREAS 
1920 
V77L STATE 
Fig. 8.— Average farm wages in the plantation areas of Louisiana and Georgia as compared with average 
farm wages for the States as a whole, 1913, 1920, and 1921. (Compiled from estimates obtained by the 
Division of Statistics, Bureau of Agricultural Economics.) 
higher. However, it is considered bad policy on the plantation to 
make any appreciable difference between regular and extra laborers 
because of dissatisfaction. Some planters say that this tendency of 
negro common laborers not to distinguish between efficiency and 
inefficiency prevents the more skilled workmen within the race from 
receiving wages equal to their worth. 
Wages were reported higher in the more extreme border States of 
the plant at ion region than in intervening States, as shown by Table 9. 
This is thought to be due to the larger percentage of skilled white 
laborers in these areas, the influence of smaller farms and a different 
system of agriculture in the adjacent territory. Here wages were 
reported as being Lower in the plantation districts than that reported 
for the entire Stale. (Fig. 8.) It has been generally true that wages 
are lower in the South than in other agricultural regions of the 
■ correspond generallj to the Information on the same subject obtained by field 
: U'li Ing plantation condil Ion . 
