GENERAL FARM MANAGEMENT. 31 



enthusiasm he would if he felt that you were liberal in your 

 dealings with him. 



Of late years I am very cautious about making a contract 

 with a work hand for a specified time unless I know him thor- 

 oughly, for I do not wish to be obliged to keep a man who proves 

 to be ill-tempered, immoral, or disobliging; so I hire a hand for 

 a specified time, but insert in the contract that either may ter- 

 minate the engagement on a week's notice. I state to the man 

 frankly when I hire him what I shall expect of him, and tell 

 him that I do not wish him to stay with me a day longer than 

 he is well treated, and that I shall dispense with his services 

 whenever our relations cease to be agreeable. There should be 

 a form of contract or memorandum of agreement drawn up, to 

 be signed by both parties, and in this every thing should be 

 plainly stated, nothing left to memory. If your hand is a mar- 

 ried man, and is to have garden, cow pasture, house rent, and 

 other privileges, specify exactly what they are to be. 



Some young men think that if they work through the day 

 it is no business of their employer if they spend every evening 

 at the village, and come into the house at midnight or remain 

 away over night and get back after the feeding is done in the 

 morning. A fair understanding on all these points, written out 

 at the beginning, will go far toward preventing misunderstanding 

 and trouble in the future. There are some kinds of work needed 

 occasionally on the farm which can hardly be called farm work 

 for example, quarrying stone, ditching, and well-digging and if 

 you have not specified these in your memorandum, I think it 

 fair that they should be done by help hired expressly for the 

 purpose or extra pay allowed your hand if he does the work. 

 There is no better rule in the treatment of employes than " do 

 unto others as ye would they should do unto you ;" if there is 

 first a fair understanding between the parties and an approxi- 

 mate observance of this rule, there will be little trouble. 



Some farmers have adopted the plan of giving a bonus for 

 good behavior and faithful work, and have found it satisfactory. 

 The plan is this : After the bargain is made, say for eight months 

 at fifteen dollars per month, with a memorandum that the engage- 



