154 BOAKD OF AGRICULTUKE. [Pub. Doc. 



it is money well invested. I think we should do all we 

 possibly can with machinery. 



I think that it is wise for us to treat our help well in all 

 cases. I believe that if you agree to pay a man so much per 

 week, or per year, or per month, whatever time you hire 

 him for, it is better for you to pay him a little more than is 

 due any time, than to show any disposition to dock him. I 

 have always found it to my advantage, if I have a fair stock 

 of potatoes or vegetables of any kind, or milk, or anything, 

 to once in a while make a man a present of some one of these 

 products of the farm. It encourages him ; he feels as though 

 you had an interest in him; and I have found it profitable 

 to do that. 



Another thing, — I believe it is better to pay pretty good 

 wages. In our gypsy moth work, where we employed from 

 two to three or four hundred men a day, we found it a great 

 deal more satisfactory where we had a good man. The work 

 that a good man did we called a great deal more profitable 

 to the State than some cheap help ; and I think it is so in 

 every case, — that a farmer can get better work by paying 

 a good, fair price, and having your man interested in your 

 farm work. You will gain rather than lose, for I believe 

 you will lose if you hire cheap help. I don't believe in what 

 I just heard the gentleman say about the Italian help here. 

 I don't believe it is help I want on my farm. I believe I 

 would rather pay a higher price for my help than to expect, 

 when I have told a man to do thus and so, to go home and 

 find it done just the opposite, in some other way. I would 

 rather have a man do what I told him to do, and I believe 

 we have help that will do that ; and I believe if we use them 

 well they will use us well. 



How to make the help more plenty, I don't know. I am 

 located in a manufacturing town, where the men can go into 

 a shoe factory and make three, four and in some cases five 

 dollars a day; but then, to offset all this, for days they are 

 out of the factory, the factory is running only six hours or 

 seven hours, the factory is not running full time, shut down 

 to take account of stock, or to wait for orders, and those men 

 are standing idle. They don't in the end save much more 

 money than the man working on the farm at a less price. 



