Economy in Gardening 299 



averages 80 cents to $1 per day. Now we have no wish 

 whatever to lower the price of labor; we would rather feel 

 that, by and by, we could afford to pay even more. But 

 we wish either to avoid unnecessary expenditure for labor 

 in producing a certain result, or to arrive at some mode of 

 insuring that the dollar a day, paid for labor, shall be fairly 

 and well earned. 



Four-fifths of all the gardening labor performed in the 

 eastern and middle states is performed by Irish emigrants.* 

 Always accustomed to something of oppression on the part 

 of landlords and employers, in their own country, it is not 

 surprising that their old habits stick close to them here; 

 and as a class, they require far more watching to get a fair 

 day's labor from them than many of our own people. On 

 the other hand, there is no workman who is more stimulated 

 by the consciousness of working on his own account than 

 an Irishman. He will work stoutly and faithfully, from 

 early to late, to accomplish a job of his own seeking, or 

 which he has fairly contracted for, and accomplish it in a 

 third less time than if \vorking by the day. 



The deduction which experienced employers in the coun- 

 try draw from this, is, never to employ "rough hands," or 

 persons whose ability and steadiness have not been well 

 proved, by the day or month, but always by contract, piece 

 or job. The saving to the employer is large; and the 

 laborer, while he gets fairly paid, is induced, by a feeling of 

 greater independence, or to sustain his own credit, to labor 

 faithfully and without wasting the time of his employer. 



We saw a striking illustration of this lately, in the case of 

 two neighbors, - - both planting extensive orchards, and re- 

 quiring, therefore, a good deal of extra labor. One of them 

 had all the holes for his trees dug by contract, of good size, 

 and two spades deep, for six cents per hole. The other had 

 it executed by the day, and by the same class of labor, - 

 foreigners, newly arrived. We had the curiosity to ask a 

 few questions, to ascertain the difference of cost in the two 

 cases; and found, as we expected, that the cost in the day's 



* This situation also has changed since 1849. -- F. A. W. 



