140 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



employ foreigners, wlio are unfamiliar with our methods of 

 farming and who cannot speak our language very well, if 'at 

 all. While this class of employees is well meaning in the main, 

 and to them we owe a debt of gratitude, for without them 

 we should have been devoid of help, — yet it has necessitated 

 the constant presence and direction of the employer. They 

 cannot be trusted alone, not because they are lazy or dis- 

 honest, but because they cannot understand instruction in 

 our language, and do not know how to do our work judi- 

 ciously without personal direction and supervision. With 

 many of them cleanliness is not considered a cardinal virtue, 

 so their employers in the house and in the field are subjected 

 to continual annoyance and inconvenience that would not be 

 incident to a superior class of help. Yet the scarcity of help 

 has compelled the farmer not only to put up with such in- 

 ferior labor, but to pay a high price for it. 



This condition of things has gone on from year to year 

 until it has become a menace to the agriculture of the State. 

 It is surely a grave problem, and one that is closely bound up 

 with the whole farming problem. What caused it is easy of 

 demonstration. The cheap land and mild climate of the 

 southern and Pacific States, and the fertile soil and brilliant 

 agricultural prospects of the great west and Canada have in- 

 duced many of our young farmers to try their fortunes there. 

 The wonderful discoveries in the application of electricity to 

 the varied developments of human industry have called our 

 young men and women from the farm to service in the 

 electric car, the automobile and the telephone office. The 

 unparalleled development in this country of every kind of 

 industry known to modern civilization has furnished em- 

 ployment for thousands of our young people at higher wages 

 than our farmers could afford to pay. The centralization of 

 population, which is a marked characteristic of this" age, has 

 multiplied the inhabitants of towns and cities and lessened 

 the help upon the farm. 



Another potent cause for scarcity of farm help is the lack 

 of children upon the farm. Our farmers are as guilty of 

 race suicide as any other class of our population. While the 

 farmer is about the only person in these times who can make 



