128 • BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



man, and I sent that little order to a manufacturer of ours, 

 who is employing help who make from 11.00 to $1.75 a day. 

 They are a nice lot of girls. Any gentleman or lady here 

 would be very glad to get such help inside their house to do 

 the work. But where is the farmer who could pay $1.00 or 

 $1.75 a day for domestic help? The best operatives in our 

 mills get from $1.25 to $2.50 a day right along. What class 

 of help are you going to hire from them ? Any of them seek 

 shelter in the mills, heated with steam, rather than take out- 

 of-door exercise. 



Mr. Gold. What does this mill help have, at the end of a 

 week or month to show, after they have paid their board and 

 expenses ? 



Mr. Hyde. Many of the girls and women who work in the 

 mills will have from $12 to $20 at the end of the month. 



Mr. Sedgwick. Mr. Webb struck the key-note in this 

 thing. The question of farm wages here in New England is 

 really determined by the law of supply and demand. He 

 says he goes to market and says, " What will you give for 

 potatoes? " " Fifty cents a bushel." " I will take it." He 

 takes it because he cannot get any more. The man looking 

 for work comes to the farmer and says, " What will you give 

 me a month ? "I will give you $18.00 a month and board." 

 " I can't take it; I can go right down to Waterbury and earn 

 my $1.75 and $2.00 a day. I can do better ; I will go to 

 Waterbury," That is what is draining our farms of the best 

 men we have. It is because the manufacturer can afford to 

 pay more than we can ; and until the farmer can step up and 

 pay as much as the manufacturer, he has got to liave a poorer 

 class of help. 



Mr, Bill. This matter of help had better be left to us farm- 

 ers to make just such arrangements as we can. One year, a 

 number of my men, who were living in my houses, and in 

 small places around me, who were dependent on their daily 

 labor for the maintenance of their families, said to me : " In 

 future, we shall work in no other way than upon the ten-hour 



