142 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc 



These causes account for the scarcity of farm help. Now, 

 what is the remedy ? Usually it does no good to talk of evils 

 unless we are prepared to suggest a remedy therefor. 



In the first place, there is a scarcity of help, or has been, 

 in all branches of industry; and when the rush of business 

 that has prevailed for the past few years is retarded, labor 

 will be in less demand and it will be easier then to secure 

 farm help. But the permanent causes that produce a scarcity 

 of farm help should be removed, and then the farm help 

 problem will be solved. Then, let us consider some of the 

 remedies best calculated to cure the evils complained of. 



The more attractive life is made upon the farm, the easier 

 it becomes to find help to live there. Among the things neces- 

 sary to make farm life attractive to the help are plenty of 

 good food and comfortable sleeping rooms. If there is not 

 enough to eat, and the sleeping rooms are cold, unfurnished 

 attics or dirty rooms over the woodshed, the help will shift 

 to another place in a short time. The untidy, lazy and 

 ignorant will frequently remain for a long time under these 

 conditions; but the help worth having will move on right 

 away. A merciful man is merciful to his beast ; and a merci- 

 ful farmer should be merciful to his hired help. He should 

 not lodge them in stuffy rooms, or require them to sleep on 

 dirty beds infested with microbes and bedbugs. 



There is an occasional complaint on the part of farm help 

 that they are not treated well socially ; but from my experi- 

 ence as a hired man in early life and from my observation in 

 later years there is not much ground for this complaint. A 

 farming community is proverbially democratic, and the re- 

 spectable and intelligent farm help are on an equality with 

 their employers. They are usually allowed to sit at the 

 farmer's table; they work side by side with him and his 

 family ; they are welcomed at church and the town hall, and 

 they associate with the land owners of the neighborhood in 

 the grange circle and the farmer's club. 



But I think there is just ground for the complaint that 

 farm help are often required to work too many hours per 

 day. Under present rural conditions it is difficult to carry 

 on a farm successfully with less than ten hours' work each 



