8 DAIRY CATTLE AND MILK PRODUCTION 



making it safe for the farmer of small capital as well as for the 

 larger. 



The Labor Question. The problem of securing sufficient 

 and satisfactory labor is generally counted the greatest diffi- 

 culty experienced in conducting a dairy farm. This difficulty 

 arises from the necessity of treating the cow carefully at all 

 times, and especially from the fact that the work becomes some- 

 what monotonous from having to be done regularly every day. 

 While the labor problem is a serious one, it is no worse than 

 experienced in conducting almost any other line of farming, 

 and in fact under proper conditions may be less. The grain 

 farmer crowds his work into a few months and requires a large 

 amount of help for a few days or weeks only, and finds it al- 

 most impossible to secure, since he has no work to offer the 

 remainder of the year.' Work on the dairy farm is distributed 

 throughout the year, and arrangements may be made ac- 

 cordingly. The special objections raised to the labor on the 

 dairy farm are the long hours, the steady, regular work, and 

 the nature of the work. To reduce the labor problem to the 

 minimum, first of all the hours must be made as reasonable as 

 in any other kind of farming. Provision should also be made 

 for regular time off by each laborer in turn. The objections 

 made to the nature of the work comes almost entirely from 

 the conditions under which the work is done, and that may 

 be removed. If the cows are milked in a clean, well-lighted, 

 comfortable stable at reasonable hours, and modern methods 

 of handling the manure and feed by overhead carriers are in- 

 stalled, the objections to the work will mostly disappear. In 

 most localities by furnishing a comfortable house, a man with 

 a family may be employed by the year with the best satis- 

 faction to the employer. 



