Sullivan County Farming. 191 



As regards the price of farm labor, which always pays better 

 when employed on good than poor land, it certainly is as 

 reasonable as that of any other employment, and if, as in a 

 majority of cases, it is too high to prove remunerative to the 

 employer, it certainly is not the laborer's fault, for no one can 

 decently support himself and family on less than the present 

 ruling prices. If the farm is clear of all indebtedness and in 

 fair condition, no doubt it will pay to hire help. No rule can be 

 laid down to govern its advisability in all cases; everyone must 

 be his own judge. 



Through fear of doing too much for posterity we often cheat 

 ourselves, or, in other words, do not advance our own interests as 

 we should for fear that others, some time or other, may enter 

 into our labors. This, to say the least, is taking an extremely 

 selffish view of the matter, and had our forefathers been actuated 

 by the same principle we should not to-day be enjoying the ad- 

 vantages we have derived from their labors. We cannot isolate 

 ourselves from each other and enjoy the benefits which accrue 

 from a union of labor. Notably is this the case in the setting out 

 of fruit and shade trees. We not infrequently allow ourselves 

 to be reasoned into the belief that we will never live to reap the 

 benefit of our labor and expense, and that it is unnecessary to do 

 for posterity what they in after years can do for themselves, and 

 thus the duty is allowed to go by. The fact is, however, that we 

 reason falsely. In most cases the subject comes up for consider- 

 ation in youth or middle age, and if acted upon we may and do 

 in most instances live to see them come to maturity. Even if ad- 

 vanced in years we should by that time have learned a lesgon 

 which searches out beyond self. Twelve years, under favorable 

 conditions, will bring an orchard into good bearing condition, 

 and twenty years, at the outside, will produce maple trees large 

 enough annually to tap, and at the same time afford a most luxuri- 

 ant shade. The state has wisely recognized this fact in the mat- 

 ter of shade trees, and offers every necessary inducement to 

 farmers and others to set them out along our highways. They 

 are at once a thing of beauty and of profit, and the sooner we 



