Work and Wages. 621 



WORK AND WAGES. 



BY SILAS HOPKINS, OF EAST BERKSHIRE. 



This subject was given me to write upon for the benefit 

 of the Trout River Farmers' Chib. It is an important one, 

 however, to all the farmers in the State. It is an impor- 

 tant one to everybody who works for pay or pays for work. 



I cannot do the subject justice, but having worked for 

 others for pay, and paid others for work ; having seen upon 

 farms all sorts of help ; employed good help and poor, 

 cheap help and dear (and generally found the cheap help 

 the dearest), I may be able to make a few practical sugges- 

 tions, hoping that this paper and the discussion which shall 

 follow it niav be useful. 



I shall not undertake to tell you how much you ought to 

 pay for chopping a cord of wood, or digging a rod of ditch, 

 or what shall be the price of a month's work in haying, 

 but shall, consider briefly the mutual relation, and the mu- 

 tual obligation of master and servant, employer and 

 employed. 



It is not possible to fix a uniform rate of wages. Some- 

 times a day's work will cost seventy-five cents, and then 

 again, at another time, the same amount of work will cost 

 a dollar and a half, or twice as much. At one time a dol- 



