HUMAN EFFORT AS A FACTOR IN PRODUCTION 249 



ing until he turns off the switch of his electric power and lighting 

 system at night. Although it is true that much of the heavy work 

 on the farm has been made easier by the use of such machinery as the 

 self-binder, the self-feeder on threshing machines, the manure 

 spreader, and the riding plow, there are still many onerous tasks left. 

 Machinery has influenced farm work greatly, but so also has the 

 increase of live stock. This has made farm life more restraining and 

 exacting. 



We thus see how the increase of live stock on the farm represents 

 an increase in the kind of work that cannot be reduced to machine 

 process. But few people realize the importance of this labor situation 

 as it presents itself to the farmer today. The census reports indicate 

 how there has been a general increase of hired help in live-stock farm- 

 ing districts. In this township 15 per cent of the farmers had hired 

 help by the year, 9 per cent had help by the month over four months 

 but less than a year, 8 per cent by the month less than four months, 

 and 34 per cent hired day labor. Of the total number of farmers 23 

 per cent found it their "biggest problem to get satisfactory help." 

 There is more and more of a demand for the kind of laborers upon 

 whom the farmer may depend absolutely. -Besides physical strength, 

 the present-day system of farming demands -a willingness to work 

 irregular hours and a genuine personal interest in the work on hand. 

 Farmers who keep pure-bred dairy herds must have help the year 

 around; and any kind of hired help will no longer do. The farm 

 laborer must be a man who is painstaking and gentle in working with 

 the herd. There is so much in this alone that some of the best 

 breeders say "no milking machine, however perfect it may be mechan- 

 ically, will ever be able to replace the human hand, just because of the 

 productivity due to the friendly relation between the cow and the 

 milker." Thus it is that, in the opinion of many, "the hired-help 

 problem is the biggest problem confronting the farmer." 



71. VOCATIONAL TRAINING IN THE RURAL HIGH SCHOOL 1 

 BY R. W. STIMSON 



Agricultural education as a phase of vocational education is that 

 form of vocational training which fits for the occupation connected 

 with the tillage of the soil, the care of domestic animals, forestry, and 



1 Adapted from "The Massachusetts Home-Project Plan of Vocational Agri- 

 cultural Education," Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Education, 1914, No. 8 

 pp. 9-19. 



