INDIANAPOLIS, IND., SATURDAY, JUNE 2,1888.
NO. 22
WAGES OF FARM LABOR.
Inns Cultivated toy Owners and Ten-
* ants.
port of the Department of Agriculture.
e resnlt of the May investigation ot
of farm labor is almost identical
& that of three years ago.   The changes
very slight, though local differences
or, the averages of the geographical
tlo'ns or group of States being changed
ry little. The average rate per month,
,ere the laborer boards himself, is a few
'«lower in the Middle and Western
rteiandin Calif ornia, and a very little
in the South and in New England,
,e highest rates obtained in 1866 in the
rthern and Western States.  In Call-
iaand in the South there was a post'
e advance between that date and 1869,
e investigation of  1875, a year or two
er the monetary crises appeared.showed
ine in each section, which continued
several years, culminating in 1879, the
,te ol lowest prices of all .American farm
tacts.  The decline from 1866 to 1879
ounted to 39 per  cent in the Eastern
.tea, 55 in the Middle, 30 in the Western
tee, and 17 in the  Southern States.   In
Ionia the rate of average was well
stained, rising at first but standing in
A/gfier than in 1866.
i iThe accompanying diagram illustrates
-i 8 oourse of prices for more than 20 years,
.id forcibly shows into what a gulf wages
t II daring the five or six years panic,from
.j Ucha slow recovery commenced in 1879.
! ie sharp decline from  1886,  except in
?j Jitomia—where the highest point after
^ s war is noted in 1869—is a  fall from an
i a of inflation, in which speculative val-
i_ * were all the higher from being stated
(j « depreciated  currency.   The present
[] ilues appear to be on a more natural and
| able basis. -
Jl RENT OF FARMS.
The marked peculiarity of American
■ricoltnre has been the fact  that owners
I ,ums are the cultivators of the land. A
-W proportion of the farm proprietors
3*iot,employ farm laborers or pay farm
W. There are fewer laborers working
fifages than owners cultivating their
Nacres. The whole number of farms
Ported in the last census was 4,008,907,
e number of farmers 4,225,945, and the
smber of laborers,' 3,323,876. Since then
"Population has increased 20 per cent.,'
■M the number of persons, exclusive of
-'wivesand children of farmers, who
■Actively employed in agriculture must
••tout 9,000,000. Including non-labor-
4-cMldrenand others in the families of
^««, the agricultural population is
«««s than 26,000,000. The class of farm
rers must now number about 4,000,-i
"Ila0th9nnmber °*'farms rented was
Y* wl, of which 322,357 were taken at a
*"«ntaland 702,244 on shares. Those
* ci61* cultlvated by owners are 74.4
■oted v three-f01»ths to one-fourth
• Even this proportion of rentals
« apparent than real, as 47 per cents
■gfrrT       d ln the cotton  States- aris:
Won !r.e countlne fey census enumer-
•*ho idna-* laborers or "freemen,»
"■trntedV62"0118 of Blantations were dis-
"■*nsTt!?r0UUivatitm on Snare8» simply
f-t|ia*iist^y refnsed to w°rk for wages'
Pttanto. 0n asemblanee of independ-
h«o be  l.m8nt; and thnS a Slngle *tarm»
IteTe«i dl m 8ted from ita single owner
r^ion yany Permanent lines
|»-mjor  ,Was reckoned as half a dozen
F^Ubr018'   Very^ewof these Indi-
hrtou, ter   ** °n 8hares> "working under
Irvl-adet>   ^°f contract, can be consid-
^ »»U.e.t  entrent«rs of farms.   They
rt«mporary tenant-workers of
fractional parts of farms, and can not be
fairly cited in proof ofthe gradual decadence of cultivation of lands, by farm proprietors. It is an available form of cultiva-
tion,by paying wages in produce instead cf
cash,with a certain degree of independence
of the freedmen, and a measure of protection to the farmer against the unreliability of the laborer.
Aside from the peculiar and temporary
tenures of the Southern States,about four-
fifths of the farms are cultivated by their
owners. There is comparatively little difference in the se-seral geographical divisions, except that there is less tenant-holding in New England than elsewhere, there
being but 17,660 farms held by any system
of tenantry in the six States, and a very
smslt proportion in the Rocky Mountain
region.
Oeneral Sheridan, the chief of the army
is in a critical condition and may die at
any time.
Immense swarms of locusts are advanced upon Tiarel in Algeria. The insects
extend in a semi-circle the diameter of
which is calculated at 150 kilometres.
The missionaries of the Pacific have lost
one of their most devoted friends in the
death of Pomare, the Queen of Tahiti, and
Monea, in the Society Islands. For over
50 years this woman led a simple Christian
life. When she was born, 70 years ago,
the missionaries had not made a convert
in the South Sea Islands. When she died
more than 300 islands had been wholly
evangelized,and civilization is fast spread
ing in all the islands in this part of the
Pacific.
<&mtxnl |ptxrs.
AyiaYoqe Wo<*/es of Fartr, Lobar.
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The following statement presents the sectional averages lor each period.
' ~ ~       ~       ~     j iSS8.Tl885- ll8a"ll87§ri'i875rrMM
Western 8tatcs H^t,?.
Middle States  » \\\ » "?
Southern Statts .-   "■• Ji " 2,
Eastern States -   21 22, 3 26
California  *"* usi "8 '5
}26 81'f» 21 ?2J »;!?32 0
22 24 19 69 2( tal 2SI2
Is »i IU 3 IU 21] 1/ 21
■a (3 20 28 21 SO 27U
38 »   « 0 | 44 tc I 46 3r
Average United States - -'tis 2l!<!7 D7-41.S D4 M 42Hll) 8 I
The following is the census subdivision of farms by tenure:
iscjc..
fa 30
30 (17
16 01
28 HI
35 75
Total farms.
Fa, las  cultivated
by owners.
Tenant.
States.
Number.
Per ct
.Casb rental.
Shares.
2(7,232
48«,!> 6
_-.7,783
413,5.7
720.185
l,2l4.4i>
609,766
6.1. 5^
43.532
1S9.572
_95.27'
118,650
244,181
443,13(1
9.56,-8l
65:1,6 8
ii.'it,
41,093
91.5
8 .8
69.5
69.(1
61.5
"1.8
791
82.2
94.4
10,23c'
3*,781
17.7-cl
n.Tii
M,W»
73.8X0
3(1,1106
4,«13
609
7.131
M.S.I
3.1.4-2
188,797
lM.KCl
The Territories ......™ ~	
 	
110,1192
8 526
1,8:1-
.—
4.01S.907!        2,sst,3'6
74 4
322.357
702 241
to be half
Home-j
at New A
ported
Dakota's grain crop  promises
as large again aa that of 1S&7.
;rown strt
Ibany.
iwben
ries are re
Brownstown, Texas, was swept by a destructive cyclone on the 23rd,eight persons
were injured and one killed.
Assayer Braden reports the value of the
Montana gold and silver output last year
between ?23,000,000 and ?24,000.000.
The Methodist General Conference voted
to extend the pastoral term—the permissible term—from three years to five years.
From various reports which have been
received it is estimated that 103 fishermen
have been lost in a gale off the coast of
Ireland.
The South's greatest songsters,the mocking birds, are becoming fewer, and the
change is attributed to the advent of the
English sparrows.
M. Jovis,a French aeronaut, is making a
baloon nearly 200 feet in hight, in which
he proposes to sail through the air across
the Atlantic next autumn.
A professor in the University of Vienna,
long a sufferer through poison in the eye,
was completely cured by having a rabbit's
nerve attached to the old nerve.
Jacob Boatright, colored, was sold at
public auction Friday last, at Marshall,
Mo., for a term of six months for $6 50.
He had been convicted of vagrancy.
San Antonio, Texas, is claimed to be the
largest wool market in the Southwest, the
greatest horse market in the country, and
the greatest pecan market in the world.
Some Pittsburgh glass-workers will establish a co-operative plant at Tiffin, O.
Five acres of ground, free gas and $10,000
were given as a bonus by the people of
Tiffin.
A party of Southern gentlemen have
bought several thousand acres of land
near Macon, Oa., and will convert it into
a game park. It is already well stocked
with deer.
A 500-loom cotton-mill for the manufacture of the finer qualities of ginghams,
seersuckers, etc., will be established at
Columbus, Ga. This will be the first mill
of the kind in the South.
Friday morning a Texas steer escaped
from the Stock Yards, at Cincinnati, ran
two miles a *ros3 the city and killed John
Sorg, sged 65 years. The police killed the
brute after two hours' chase.
Charles Carey, who, sometime ago, shot
and killed a Chinaman at the Stock Yards,
at Chicago, has been sentenced to 50 years
in the penitentiary. Carey Bhot Noy
Mung, an inoffensive Chinaman. The
killing was purely malicious and unprovoked.
The pineapple season is now at its hight.
New York merchants are receiving about
10,000 barrels a week. The barrels con'ain
from 25 to 30 extra large "pines," or 40 to
60 small ones. The season lasts from April
until August, and about 5,000,000 pineapples are imported each year.
Heavy rains have washed out 10,000,000
feet of bridging near Mountain Bay, Ar-
kanj'iI. At Chester a 16-stall round house,
a brick building, was swept away. At
Winslow the guests at Yoe's Hotel had to
wade through the water and take refuge
in a box car, as the foundations of the
hotel were sinking. All bridges are unsafe. Crops and fences are washed away
wherever the rain clouds burst.
Mrs. George Smith, of Clarksville, went
to New Albany and purchased several
boxes of sardines. Returning to her home
she partook of them freely and became
very ill, A physician was summoned and
he pronounced it poison from the sardines.
She will recover.