The following table gives the value per head of the various classes of farm stock sold in the years ending June 30th, 1897 and 1898: There was a substantial increase in the value per head sold of horses, cattle, sheep and hogs, but the figures for poultry are the same in each year. VALUES OF FARM CROPS. MARKET PRICES. The following table is compiled from twenty eight fairly distributed market points, and the figures are taken for the period when each of the vari ous articles of farm produce named in the table is seventeen years, 1882-98 are also given : marketed. The average prices for the Potatoes are the only item named in the foregoing table which exceeds its own average price for the seventeen years' period. On the other hand, every article excepting fall wheat, spring wheat, hay and wool has sold for a better figure than in 1897. 30.5' 50.9 55.7 49.5 55.2 59.7 64.4 45.01 25.9 39.5 126.7 65.4 29.31 49.3 113.7 55.9 28.9 45.0 97.9 52.6 27.6 33.7 83.7 58 0 27.9 39.2 80.0 40.0 118.0| 22.1 19.1 62 0 71.0' 64.0 74.0 40.0 40.0 197.0 VALUE OF CROPS. The table following gives the value of each crop, based upon market prices, acreage and yield, for each of the five years 1894-98, together with the average for the seventeen years 1882-98. Notwithstanding the fact that nine of the fourteen field crops, namely, fall wheat, rye, corn, buckwheat, beans, potatoes, carrots, turnips and hay, are lower in value than in 1897, the total of all crops shows an increase in value of $3,576,476 compared with the preceding year, and of $264.302 compared with the average for the seventeen years, the value of all field crops in 1898 being placed at $110,528,947. CROP VALUES BY COUNTY GROUPS. The table following gives the value of field crops by county groups and for the Province for each of the five years 1894-98, together with the average for the seventeen years 1882-98: The Lake Erie, Lake Huron, West Midland and Lake Ontario districts fall below their respective values for the preceding year, but the other four groups more than make up for the deficiency. The Lake Ontario, St. Lawrence and Ottawa, and East Midland groups fail to reach their respective averages for the seventeen years period. Districts. VALUE OF PRODUCE PER A CRE. The following table gives the value per acre raised of each of the staple field crop, by county groups and for the Province; also the totals for 1897, and the average for the seventeen years 1882-98. The average value of all crops per acre is also given: The value Both yield and price go to make up the results given in the foregoing table. of all groups per acre is $12.51, or twenty-two cents more than in 1897, though $1.49 less than the average for the seventeen years. Fall wheat, corn, buckwheat, bears, potatoes, carrots, turnips and bay fail to reach their respective figures of the preceding year. The West Midland group has the highest value per acre, and the Northern districts the lowest. PER CENT. RATIOS OF VALUES PER ACR E. The following table compares the values of the various crops by means of per cent. ratios, with their respective averages for the seventeen years 1882 98, by county groups and for the Province: None of the districts reach 100 for all with 91. Fall wheat and mangel wurzels are the only crops going over 100 in the figures for the Province, while turnips exactly reach that figure. crops, the Lake Huron group coming nearest to it LABOR AND WAGES The tenor of the August returns was thus expressed in the bulletin then published: "The supply of farm labor as a rule has been fully adequate to the demand, the complaints of scarcity in a few localities being inevitable in any condition of the labor market when the temporary nature of harvest work is considered. The tendency to dispense with labor outside of the farmers' family by the increased use of machinery continues, and as less help is needed on the farm the supply adjusts itself to the diminishing requirements. There is a very wide range of difference noticeable in the wages paid for farm labor. Through the greater part of the Province the wages of harvest hands run from 75 cents to $1.25 or $1.50 per day, with board. Monthly wages vary from $12 to $25 with board, the larger amounts being where engagements are limited to a month or two in the harvest season. In some eastern localities men are obtainable by the day for from 50 to 75 cents and board, or $1 without. Taking the Province throughout, $1 or $1.25, with board, would probably be a fair average for harvest hands engaged by the day, and $15 per month for engagements for the season." The November bulletin contained the following: "Farm labor has been fully equal to the demand during the greater part of the season, but in a few neighborhoods there was a scarcity during the harvest season. The demand is decreasing owing to the more universal employment of agricultural machinery, which enables many farmers to dispense with help outside of their own families. The great majority of correspondents see no reason to anticipate any change in the rate of wages, but most of those who take a different view look for an increase rather than a fall, on the ground that times are improving, and that many young men have gone to the North-west or found employment in railway or canal construction. The complaint that female domestic labor is scarce, and in some cases practically unobtainable, is well nigh universal-the cause assigned being the preference of country-bred girls for employment in the cities and towns, where the wages are higher and the work not so hard. Various remedies are suggested, prominent among these being the encouragement of immigration, but nearly all who touch on this phase of the subject oppose the importation of juvenile street waifs." The rates of wages paid farm laborers is given in the following table by the year and by the month, with and without board, by county groups and for the Province, in 1897 and 1898, together with the average for the seventeen years 1882-98; also the monthly wages of domestic servants on the farm: Lake Erie The Province.. 145 146 155| 232 234 247 15.51 14.60 16.62 24.60 24.59| 25.65 6.05 6.35 146 146 158 233, 224 252 15.09 13 92 16.97 24.90 24.29 26 63 5.96 5.87 148 141 155 237 248 253 15.10 13.88 16.80 25.48 21.37 26.52 5.76, 5.64 147 143 157 249, 239 248 15.22 13.69 16.63 25 66 24.10 25.95 6.33 6.16 151 117 159 252 241 252 15.39 14.47 16.78 25.79, 24.69 26.03 6.30 6.12 153 139 157 258 223 249 15.11 14 32 16.96 25.43 23.45 25.96 5 81 5.78 14.80 13.89 16 73 24.89 21.59 26.16 5.62 5.57 16.97 16.26 18.87 26.46 26.23 28.60 6.54 5.91 148 144 157 246 236 251 15.31 14.29 16.82) 25.41 24.47 26.21 6.09 5.97 The average yearly rate of wages, with board, is $148, or $4 more than in the preceding year, although there has been no change in the Lake Huron district, and a falling off of $1 1882-98. 1898. 1882-98. 1898. 1897. in the Lake Erie group. Wages by the year, without board, have risen to $246, or $10 more than in the preceding year, but the Lake Erie and Georgian Bay counties fail to share in the increase. Monthly wages, with board, average $15.31, which is $1.02 better than in the year before, and monthly wages without board average $25.44, or 97 cents more than in 1897. In every instance the total for the Province in 1898 is less than the average for the seventeen years. Domestic servants average $6.09, or 12 cents more than in the year preceding. This year this class of workers received the highest average wages in the Northern Districts. REMARKS OF CORRESPONDENTS. FROM THE AUGUST RETURNS. Colchester N., Essex: The scarcity has arisen from so many being employed in the cultivation of tobacco in adjoining townships. Gosfield N., Essex: No man need go hungry for the want of work in this township. Raleigh, Kent: One dollar a day with board for good man; poor ones for what they could get. Dawn, Lambton: Farm laborers are very scarce. Farmers do not pretend to hire help except a few days in harvest; even then some farmers combine with a neighbor, get binders and mowers in partnership and work them turn about in each place. Moore, Lambton: Improved machinery supplies the want for harvest hands. Arran, Bruce Wages higher than usual for the last few years. Too many useless tools. Artemesia, Grey: There are a great number of young men and girls that go to the city and on farms in other sections in southern Ontario or the States from here. Not much hiring done here. Oro, Simcoe: The labor is mostly hired for six to eight months--from March or April. London, Middlesex: Good farm hands always scarce. Westminster, Middlesex: There is quite a demand for Blandford, Oxford: There is sufficient where hands are generally well used; but some farmers have an ill name and find trouble enough. good men, and they are not plentiful. Dumfries S., Brant: Sufficient for summer work but scarce at harvest. Cause, not enough yearly engagements; men seek employment of more permanency. Saltfleet, Wentworth: Wages are a little lower than last year. Nassagawera, Halton: Owing to so much machinery being used few men are required. Scott, Ontario: Labor is dearer, wages higher. Percy, Northumberland: Plenty of men; female servants scarce. Ameliasburg, Prince Edward: As nearly all farmers have good binders to cut nd harvest their crops, they do not need so much help. Lancaster, Glengarry: Improved machinery has made great changes here. Cumberland, Russell: Scarce enough on account of railroad work. Osgoode, Carleton: Not so many laborers and not so many looking for them. FROM THE NOVEMBER RETURNS. Mersea, Essex: The rate of wages has been higher this year owing to the tobacco industry, but will fall to the old level, as there will not be as much tobacco planted next year. Harwich, Kent: A good many laborers have gone to the N.W.T. and Manitoba. Seneca, Haldimand: Our improved machinery lessens the demand for farm labor. Dawn, Lambton: Almost impossible to get a farm laborer when you want a man. Even boys raised on a farm leave it, if they get any other opening not near as good. Moore, Lambton: The use of machinery is superseding hand labor greatly in farming operations. Ashfield, Huron: The rate of wages is likely to rise owing to better prices of farm products, and the removal of many laboring men to the United States and Western regions of Canada. Howick, Huron: I think immigration will regulate any deficiency caused by our laborers advancing to independence, which is going on steadily. Culross, Bruce: Wages high and likely to continue so owing to emigration to Manitoba and elsewhere. Keppel, Grey: Machinery is taking the place of hired helf |