No. 4.] FARM HELP PROBLEM. 143 



week day; but ten hours' work is enough, and the farmer 

 who insists upon working his help more than that is con- 

 tributing to the scarcity of farm help and its degradation. 

 When a person at night is too tired to read or to think, and 

 drops immediately into senseless slumber, he is unfit on elec- 

 tion day to perforin the duties of a good citizen or on other 

 days to perform the duties of a good householder. The farm 

 laborer is justly entitled each day to a few hours for recrea- 

 tion and attention to his domestic affairs. It may be said 

 that he would not spend this time profitably if he had a 

 chance to do so ; but he has the right to the opportunity, and 

 history shows that he has generally improved the opportunity 

 when given the chance. 



When the Agricultural Laborer's Union of England, under 

 the leadership of Joseph Arch, secured shorter days' work 

 for themselves, they soon became more intelligent and better 

 householders. Their gardens were better cultivated ; their 

 tenements were better furnished. Flowers began to blossom 

 around their cottage walls, the windows were neatly cur- 

 tained, books and papers appeared on their tables, and every- 

 thing inside and outside their dwellings indicated a marked 

 improvement in their social condition. And in this connec- 

 tion another remedy for the scarcity of farm help could be 

 found by the adoption here of the English system of cottages 

 for the farm help. There it is customary for the farmer to 

 have cottages upon his farm for the use of his help. This 

 secures him permanent married help. The male employees 

 work in the field, and their wives and daughters, being near 

 by, are frequently employed in the farmer's house. A gar- 

 den goes with each cottage, and long service on the same farm 

 is not an unusual occurrence. 



In the report of the meeting of last year of the Lincoln 

 Agricultural Society in England, where prizes were offered 

 to farm and domestic servants for long servitude, there were 

 eleven competitors in the class for working agricultural fore- 

 men who had the longest record of service in one family or 

 their predecessors. William Brighton won the first prize, 

 with a record of fifty years' service; and three others won 

 second, third and fourth prizes, with records of thirty-eight, 



