Getting along with Help 117 



nor the payment of spasmodic prices which always 

 cause the small fruit-growers apprehension. Labor 

 always prefers the larger field as well as the higher 

 price. Yet workers know a good thing and will 

 come to the man whose fruit-farm is best managed, 

 best equipped, and most productive. It is always 

 the poor manager, the poor fruit-grower, the man 

 of light crops, who has greatest difficulty to seciu-e 

 adequate help. Things breed after their kind; 

 the best workers will always be found on the best 

 farms. 



The whole matter hinges on the character of the 

 manager and the conditions he imposes. You 

 yourself decide the labor question. If labor cannot 

 be had '*for love or money" then you must close 

 out. But love of money will work the farm. 

 Right here, however, is the fundamental: Is 

 there enough money in fruit-farming to pay the 

 labor bill, the expense of administration, and to 

 leave enough for a fair interest on the investment? 

 This is more than a local question in the Lake 

 Erie Valley. Railroads, canals, corporations, legis- 

 lation, tariffs, employers* liability acts, combi- 

 nations in restraint of trade, strikes, epidemics, 

 [wars, disasters by sea and land, the market, — all 

 affect the fruit-farm. One may be able by reason 

 of location to raise tons of fruit, yet be precluded 

 by adverse conditions from realizing a penny on 

 his crop. This may be said of any business. So 

 far as concerns labor, we all hang or fall together. 

 We cannot escape the conditions of industry. 



H 



