126 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



number of hours ? I have done it, and it worked well. Pay 

 your man well for every hour he works, and he will be glad 

 to stay until nine o'clock, if necessary. Give him twenty 

 cents an hour, and if it is a rainy morning when he comes 

 on, tell him to wait till the shower passes by. If you don't 

 want his services, when a shower comes on in the afternoon, 

 take out your watch and put down his time. Pay him twenty 

 or twenty-five cents an hour, and he will be glad to do it. 



One other point. What do you want to board your men in 

 your family for? A hired man can board himself cheaper 

 than you can do it, and you have all the trouble and annoy- 

 ance of having a sweaty, perspiring man at your table, when 

 you don't want him. If you have company, you can't have 

 such a man as that at the table with them, and you feel sort 

 of disagreeable about it. If he is not one of the kind of 

 men you want around all the time, you can pay him eight or 

 ten dollars a month more, and he can board himself, as I say, 

 cheaper than you can board him. I think that can be demon- 

 strated without any trouble. 



Mr. Wetherell. I want to ask one question with regard 

 to the laborer boarding himself. Take the isolated farms of 

 New England, with only one hired man, perhaps half a mile 

 or a mile from any other house, where are such laborers going 

 to board, or how is a bachelor going to board himself ? 



Mr. Sedgwick. I admit that there are circumstances which 

 may alter the rule, but for the ordinary farmer who employs 

 three or four men, it is cheaper by far to have tenement- 

 houses, and let his men live in those tenement-houses. 

 Mr. Wetherell. Such are not ordinary farmers. 

 Mr. Sedgwick. I think a majority of the farmers in these 

 towns are men who hire from two to three men in the course 

 of the year, and a good many of them have tenement-houses 

 on their farms ; if not they ought to have. 



Mr. Webb. This question is a very important one. It is 

 one which has given me a great deal of trouble. I have 

 traveled a great many miles a good many times, and 



