11 



get labor will depend upon making the farm job pay as good 

 wages and offer as good working conditions as industrial com- 

 petitors are offering. 



Since the farmer's work is seasonal, it has been too much 

 the custom to hire in the spring and fire in the fall. Such a 

 job is not a good one, and we can never expect to get good 

 men on our farms unless we offer all-the-year-round employ- 

 ment. Even though profitable employment cannot be found in 

 winter, it is sometimes good business policy to carry good men 

 through the slack season, so that they will be available when 

 needed. 



Men who work on farms like homes of their own, and those 

 farms which have tenement houses for their men seldom have 

 labor troubles. I have never advertised for a man and offered 

 to provide a house, without receiving a number of good appli- 

 cations. 



I am a behever in the profit-sharing plan as a means of in- 

 teresting men in my farm business. A good man will not 

 always work for wages. He will save until he has capital 

 enough to start as a tenant farmer or to purchase a farm for 

 himself; then he will start a business of his own. If we are 

 to keep such men with us we must give them an interest in our 

 business through some system of profit-sharing which will give 

 them something more than ordinary wages. I have had such 

 good success with this plan that I can recommend it to you. 

 Not every man will appreciate it sufficiently to work under it, 

 but for those who will, it is a wonderful incentive to stay on 

 the job and do their best in the farm business. 



Markets. 



The next and final factor in our discussion is that of markets. 

 Our crop raised, are we to receive a paying price for it, or are 

 we to find a glutted market and an unprofitable price? This 

 is a risk which the farmer fears as much as any other in normal 

 times. How are we to avoid it? Diversity of crops will help. 

 If we put our eggs all in one basket, we stake our all on what 

 happens to that basket. Perhaps under certain conditions it 

 will pay best to do so, after all. Aroostook County, Maine, is 

 an example of a section which depends almost entirely upon 



