FARM LABOR 93 



plicated by the difficulty of securing labor, even 

 at the relatively high prices now prevailing, that 

 is competent to handle modern farm machinery 

 and to care for live-stock and to handle the 

 special work of the improved dairy. It is further 

 complicated in all parts of the country by the 

 competition of railroads, mines and factories, 

 which, by reason of shorter hours, apparently 

 higher pay, and the opportunities for social 

 diversion and often of dissipation, attract the 

 native farm hand to the towns and cities. 



The difficulty of securing good labor is so great 

 in many parts of the country that farmers are 

 driven to dispose of their farms, leaving their 

 land to be worked on shares by more or less 

 irresponsible tenants, or selling them outright, 

 often to foreigners. All absentee and proxy 

 farming (which seems to be increasing) creates 

 serious social problems in the regions thus 

 affected. There is not sufficient good labor 

 available in the country to enable us to farm our 

 lands under present systems of agriculture and 

 to develop our institutions effectively. Our 

 native labor supply could be much increased by 

 such hygienic measures as would lessen the 



