CHAPTER XXVI. 



HIRED HELP. 



EMPLOYMENT AND TREATMENT OF LABOR. 



" The laborer is worthy of his hire." 



HE finer quality of garden work, with its many- 

 somewhat deHcate operations, calls for greater 

 mechanical skill, wider experience and riper intel- 

 ligence than required for the performance of the 

 simpler and more primitive manipulations of aver- 

 age farm management. 



Really first-class help is scarce even on the 

 farm. If we watch the average plowman in the field, 

 or the hired man as he wields the hoe, we will soon find that there 

 is a wonderful difference in the quality of such work, and that the 

 man who does a perfect job, like a true friend, is a rara avis 

 indeed. More than in any other respect is it a truism of the labor 

 market, that the " best is always the cheapest." The simplest 

 manipulations in the garden are more than doubled in value and 

 lasting benefit when directed by a fair amount of intelligence. 

 One thorough hoeing, for instance, will keep the ground in better 

 condition and free from weed -growth for a longer time than two 

 or three of the average kind of so-called hoeing. The former 

 (thorough hoeing) may require more " elbow grease," but very 

 little more time. The same with other operations. 



Years ago I had my onion-weeding done by young boys, 

 picked up wherever they could be found willing to work for 50 

 cents a day. The poor quality of the work done by the great 

 majority of them, the unceasing and close supervision and dis- 

 cipline they required.the damage caused by the careless destruction 

 of many of the finest plants, the general inclination to slight the 

 work,and the frequency of hand-weeding rendered necessary thereby 

 — all these drawbacks made boy-labor at 50 cents a day come pretty 

 high. Grown persons might have been employed at the same 

 time at ;$i.oo a day, and they would probably have done the work 

 25 per cent, faster and 50 per cent, better, and that without 

 damage to the crop, consequently at a large saving of expense, of 

 supervision and of considerable annoyance. Verily, the good 

 laborer is worthy of his hire : but the poor one certainly is not. 



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