Supply of Farm Labor

Excerpts from the report: Farm labor in this country has presented the problem of a diminishing supply relative to population since the days of original settlement. It is the old familiar feature of the industrial nations of the world. Until recent years, the problem was almost entirely confined to the quantity of the supply, but, during the last decade or two it has assumed a new phase in which not only the amount of the supply relatively has almost critically declined, but the quality has almost absolutely declined, or has failed in an important degree to keep pace with the need for labor, more skill, and more intelligence. Table 1 has been prepared to exhibit the percentage of persons in all occupations who are engaged in agriculture, forest work, and fishing, in various countries for which census statistics are available, and for as many censuses as possible for each country. A rough comparison of countries may be permissible in this table, but a more trustworthy comparison is justified in the case of each country in its series of censuses. From the earliest to the latest census there is a trend in the percentage of the number of persons of all occupations who are engaged in agriculture, forest work, and fishing, and this trend, with hardly an exception, is toward smaller percentages. The agricultural element in populations has declined, and still the people are provided with food and raiment. Some of the countries have food and fiber to sell and other countries need to buy; but, it is logical that the relative decline of the agricultural element must eventually reach a point at which it is at equilibrium with industrialism. Increasing production per acre and increasing efficiency of human labor, promoted largely by implements and machinery, permit a reduction of the agricultural element in the population relatively to a lower point than could be reached and sustained by a crude agriculture.