28 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



fertility of the soil by the use of any commercial manure 

 which has yet been placed within reach of Massachusetts farm- 

 ers. It is, however, often expedient to use them to start a 

 crop, and to help out a short supply of other fertilizers. But 

 he who places his reliance on them will find his profits vary in 

 an inverse ratio to the cash paid out. 



Another difficulty of increasing magnitude, and perhaps the 

 most perplexing of all, is the poor quality of much farm labor. 

 We can many of us remember when young men from the 

 country — neat, smart and intelligent — came among the farmers 

 for work about the first of April in every year. Farmers' sons 

 themselves, they knew how to perform every kind of farm 

 work, and, best of all, they seemed to make their employer's 

 interest their own. Now such help is rare, and we are obli'ged 

 to depend largely on foreign labor, unfamiliar with our methods 

 and often careless of our interests. 



The farmer needs skilled labor almost as much as the man- 

 ufacturer — unless his own eye can constantly oversee all his 

 work — because this work of the farm is not a continual repeti- 

 tion of the same operations, like much of the work performed 

 in mechanics and manufactures, but it is constantly changing ; 

 hence skill and experience, as well as good judgment, are re- 

 quired for its best performance. 



Farmers do not commonly estimate the difference between 

 the value of the service of a really good man and that of a 

 poor one at a sufficiently high rate. The men of greatest phys- 

 ical strength and endurance are not always the most valuable, 

 but rather those of less strength, it may be, who understand 

 the diverse manipulations of farm labor, who are careful of 

 tools, industrious, and mindful of the interests of their em- 

 ployer. It is certainly true that the aggregate cost of farm labor 

 is now more than farmers can afford ; but if they would dis- 

 criminate more and pay their best men higher wages, instead 

 of paying common wages to inferior help, it would be better 

 economy, and possibly the quality of labor might improve. 



The farmer's life is a never-ending conflict with weeds and 

 insects. Mechanical ingenuity has been taxed to provide in- 

 struments for eradicating weeds in the most thorough and eco- 

 nomical manner, but, yet some kinds almost baffle the farmer's 

 efforts. By constant and timely cultivation, most of the com- 



