144 BOAKD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



thirty-six and thirty-five years respectively. The class for 

 shepherds was won by four men who had served one em- 

 ployer for forty-seven, forty-one, thirty-eight and one-half 

 and thirty-five years respectively. In the class for married 

 men or widowers for long service there were nineteen com- 

 petitors, and the prizes were won by five men, who had served 

 respectively for fifty-four, fifty-three, fifty-one and one-half, 

 fifty and forty-eight years. I have never known of agricul- 

 ture being encouraged in this country by the offering and 

 awarding of such prizes, but no doubt prizes of this sort 

 would do as much for agriculture as many of the prizes that 

 are offered at our agricultural fairs. 



The use of cottages for help serves another good purpose. 

 It allows the farmer's family to live privately by themselves, 

 and it lessens the labor of the feminine members of the fam- 

 ily. There is no more reason why the farmer's wife should 

 cook, wash and mend for the laborers on the farm than there 

 is for the merchant's wife to board and darn for the clerks 

 in the merchant's store. Of course the good farmer's wife, 

 like the good merchant's wife, is willing to board the help 

 when necessary, and many a one has in this way lent a help- 

 ing hand in building up her husband's fortune; but wdien 

 necessity does not demand the boarding of the help in her 

 home, she should be relieved of this burden and allowed to 

 look after the welfare of only her own household. 



There are two other ways to solve the farm help problem : 

 one way is for the farmers to transact their business with as 

 little help as possible ; and the other way is for them to in- 

 duce laborers to enter into and remain in their service in 

 preference to other employment. ISTow, farmers can easily 

 lessen the number of their help by the use of labor-saving 

 machinery. Good machinery wisely used will enable a 

 farmer to dispense with some hired help. True, good ma- 

 chines are expensive, but they are easily housed, and do not 

 go on strike at the least provocation. They do not object to 

 long hours, or ask for a day off every little while to visit the 

 city or village. They lighten the labor of their owner by 

 doing his hardest and most disagreeable work. They make 

 farming a more pleasant and scientific occupation than it 



