fiSO now TO MAKE THE FARM PAY. 



In behalf of these men we now address a few words to their 

 employers. The larger part of them will be worked during the 

 bcasuii, and ou the approach of winter will be dismissed. They 

 arc receiving on an average about seventeen dollars per mouth 

 and board, which for eight monlrhs' time will amount to one hun- 

 ched and I'orty-live dollars. During the balance of the year they 

 will find but little, and many of them absolutely nothing to do. 

 Thev must get through as best they can until the next spring. 

 Many of them will go to the towns and into the cities hoping to 

 procure &u occasional day's work, or at least find a more agreea- 

 ble variety amid which to kill time. Temptations are on every 

 hand, and few of them will have a dollar left or decent clothes in 

 the following March, when they will again be seeking for places 

 ou the farms. This condition is very discouraging and humili- 

 ating. It is well calculated to break the manly spirit, induce reck- 

 lessness, and increase the vices and the crimes of the coiyitry. 

 What we would suggest, is the obligation on the part of the em- 

 ployer to furnish work for their men the year round. If a profit 

 has been made out of their labor during the summer, they can be 

 worked during the winter at slightly reduced wages without loss 

 to the emplo^-er. There is much good time for work during the 

 winter, and considerable labor preparations for the next busy sea- 

 son can be performed. In consequence of a lack of hands, much 

 goes to waste during the winter that might be saved. The manure 

 heap might be largeh' increased b}'^ keeping the stables and yards 

 Well cleaned up, and large quantities of muck, leaves, rotten wood, 

 sod, or rich soil from the ravines for composting. A hired man 

 could in this service alone more than make his wages for the intel- 

 ligent farmer, by working no more than half the time. Then there 

 is ditching and underdraining, which can be performed better in 

 the winter than any other season, especially when the ground is 

 not too severely frozen. It would pay to haul leaves or straw and 

 spread along the lines of ditches, to prevent the ground from 

 freezing, so that digging can go forward at any time. There are 

 very few days too cold to work with comfort. Most farmers can 

 make ditching profitable, and while the ground is soft and water 

 will run is the time to do it. There is plenty of work that a farmer 

 may provide for his men during the winter. It is cruel and de- 

 structive of the public interest to employ men during the summer, 

 and turn them out with nothing to do during the winter. 



It would be a good plan for those who have one hundred acres 

 or more to build one or more cottages, in which laboring men with 

 families can permanently reside. This will be of great benefit to 

 b(Ah the employer and the employed. It will give a fair rental to 

 the farmer and afford the laborer something like a home, in which 

 his family can be comfortable, and be encouraged to be respectable. 

 It would give the employer the advantage of the same hands from 

 year to year, and thus avoid the trouble and the risk of trying new 

 men e^ery summer. 



