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d most of the farm work, now many of them at the same age are attending schools and colleges. The sons of a man, who a generation ago found no opportunity to get beyond the district school, graduate from high school and college, and thus spend most of their time in study until they are past twenty-one years of age. Labor unions have doubtless caused a scarcity of farm labor by increasing the proportion of the created wealth which goes to the man who labors without capital. When a man can obtain fifty cents an hour for laying brick, he does not wish to work in the hay field at twenty cents an hour, even though the difference in the cost of living may in great measure offset the difference in wages. There is a growing tendency to perform work by what is called contract labor. Thus a person may agree to weed and hoe sugar beets at a certain rate per acre. He, in turn, employs a force of cheap laborers which he sends from farm to farm to do this work. The harvesting of fruits and garden crops is not infrequently done in some such manner. In one instance a contractor of laborers of foreign birth has been furnishing them for all kinds of farm work. He keeps 20 to 40 of these laborers on a small farm, furnishing them a dwelling and selling them food supplies. Farmers telephone for help when in need. The contractor receives $1.65 for a day's work and pays the laborer $1.50. It appears from the preceding considerations that there are open to every farmer at least three methods of increasing the efficiency of farm labor. He may make every day's labor more efficient by use of labor-saving machinery and the employment of it in the most efficient manner; as, for example, using three 1,500-pound horses to his farm machinery instead of a pair of 1,200-pound horses. He may modify the character of his farming in order that profitable labor will be more continuous. He may modify the method of employing labor; as, for example, by introducing the system of contracting labor for specific purposes where feasible. Increase in the price of farm labor is not an evil. It is an indication that labor applied to agriculture is becoming more productive and hence more profitable. Since more than one-half the labor of the farm is done by the owner and his family, the farmer is benefited through the rise in price of farm wages. The more that labor can be made to earn upon the farm, the better it will be not only for the farm owner but for soci
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