46 WE FARM FOR A HOBBY 



son of good growing weather grows weeds as fast 

 as fruit and vegetables. Eventually you can catch 

 up with the weeding, but it is far better for the 

 crops if their growing is not checked by weeds at 

 all. When hay is to be got into the barn or corn 

 into the crib other jobs must wait and it is not 

 always well to let them wait. The extra two days' 

 labor has justified itself this year and will show 

 up in better results next year. But I got along 

 without it for four years and could get along with- 

 out it now. On the other hand, like the man who 

 raised onions because he had eleven children to 

 weed them, if it were possible to compete with 

 government hand-outs I could in season use five 

 to a dozen extra hands. 



The allusion to child labor on the farm (where, 

 by the way, most of the child labor in this country 

 is used without any agitation to stop it) reminds 

 me that no discussion of the farm labor problem 

 is complete without a glance at the contention that 

 farm life is all work and no play. It would be 

 idle to say there is no hard work on a farm. Out- 

 side the routine housework common to city and 

 country there are many farm tasks of which the 

 city dweller is forever free at a price, in money 

 and in atrophied independence. Some of them are 

 tiresomely monotonous. Yet that is no reason why 

 strong men should shudder or lovely women's 

 chins should tremble at the very thought of doing 



