474 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



ing for themselves they are more interested in getting results. 

 The methods of a farmer near Blackwater, Mo., illustrate the 

 proper methods for these conditions. He uses a rotation of corn, 

 wheat and clover. As all his time is used in caring for his hogs, 

 cattle, hay and orchard, he rents out his corn and wheat land on 

 the shares. As all the corn is cut, the renter is glad of the oppor- 

 tunity to put in wheat the land he has had in corn. The corn and 

 wheat provide the renter with profitable work practically the year 

 round. By this method this farmer obtains superior workmen, so 

 that receipts from these crops are satisfactory without his own 

 labor. 



The main fundamental principle in the hiring of hands is 

 permanency. You should provide the hand with work the year 

 round and as long as he is satisfactory. No capable and industri- 

 ous man will work for you six months of the year and shift around 

 the remainder of the year. When he is turned off in the fall he 

 gets another job, and in the spring you must look for another 

 hand. Very often that hand is incapable or lazy. At the least, 

 he is unacquainted with your methods. I am acquainted with one 

 large employer of labor who assumes the responsibility of provid- 

 ing a living for his men. If he cannot provide them with work 

 he provides for their needs until he can provide work. By this 

 means he maintains a reliable and efficient crew. You should hire 

 men who want permanent work, such as young men who are 

 going into the farming business and want to learn the business, or 

 married men who want permanent work. Intelligent married 

 negro men are about the most satisfactory, beause they want a 

 regular income, and an intelligent negro man has fewer opportuni- 

 ties than an intelligent white man to go into business for himself. 

 A farmer near Troy, who pays such a man $365 a year and furnishes 

 him a good house, garden and milk for his family, told him last 

 year during the county fair that he might take the week off. The 

 farmer found after the fair that the man had taken off only two 

 afternoons, and when he asked the man why, he explained that he 

 had not been able to arrange the work so he could leave it. To get 

 such men as that they must be employed permanently, and it pays. 



In hiring a man the year round you should make provision for 

 rainy day and winter work. For instance, a farmer near Boonville 

 has a concrete mixing board under a shed and on rainy days in 

 summer he makes concrete posts. In winter much profitable em- 

 ployment could be had — such work as cleaning and testing seed, 



