154 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



man is hired without any special bargain as to the price, he 

 is entitled to the current rate of wages for such labor, and 

 no more ; but every laborer may not be aware that if he en- 

 gages to work for a year, but leaves without good cause at 

 the end of eleven months, he is not legally entitled to any 

 compensation for what he has done, but forfeits the whole : 

 and this is so, whether he has agreed to stay for the entire 

 year at one round sum or for twenty dollars a month (12 

 Met. 286) ; although, if the farmer had paid for each month's 

 work as it came due, he could not probably recover it back, 

 even if the laborer afterwards wrongfully left him before his 

 time was out (17 Vt. 355 ; 1 Gush. 279). And, if he has 

 given a note for the amount already earned, he must pay the 

 note, notwithstanding the subsequent failure of the other 

 party to work out his full time (13 Johns. 53). But if 

 nothing has been paid, and no note given, the laborer 

 would not only forfeit his wages, but also would be liable 

 to pay the employer for any damage done him by leav- 

 ing him without help at a critical time in the year : there- 

 fore, if he has agreed to work a year for twenty dollars a 

 month, and quits just before haying because he can get fort}'- 

 dollars at mowing for some one else, and the farmer has to 

 pay that price to get another man to supply his place, he can 

 recover of the laborer the extra twenty dollars a month for 

 the balance of the unexpired engagement, as damages caused 

 him by sucli breaking of the contract ; and the laborer could 

 not set off against the claim of the employer the value of 

 the work he had really done and not been paid for (4 Wend. 

 605). And this is so, whatever specific thing you hire a 

 man to do. If he engages to build you a barn for five hun- 

 dred dollars, to lay up a hundred feet of stone wall for a 

 dollar a foot, or dig a well twenty feet deep for twenty-five 

 dollars, and voluntarily quits without good excuse when the 

 job is half done, you are not obliged to pay a single cent for 

 what he did do (2 Mass. 147 ; 11 Gray, 396) ; although, if 

 he had substantially completed it in good faith, he would 

 not lose all his labor because, in some minute particulars, he 

 had not finished it exactly according to the precise terms of 

 the contract (7 Pick. 181 ; 9 Allen, 355). 



On the other hand, if the laborer has good cause for leav- 

 ing, he may do so, and compel the employer to pay for the 



