Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 405 



The Ten Hour System on Faems. 



Mr. J. W. Colburn, of Springfield, Yt. — I have noticed the discus- 

 sions on the hours of labor for the farm, none of which, in my judg- 

 ment, put it upon the right ground or explained it as it should have 

 been done so far as the farm is concerned. In this locality the 

 farmer does not get so many hours' work on an average the season 

 through, or by the year, as is now established by the manufacturers 

 and mechanics. Many farmers hire their help for seven or eight 

 months, from 1st of April to 1st of November or December. There 

 are three of these months that fall short in the hours of labor of the 

 other five months. ISTow, let us take the five months of the longest 

 days : A man gets up in the morning after the sun rises — it is consid- 

 ered out of good taste to get up before the sun — he does a few chores 

 and waits around the house until breakfast is ready, six a. m. ; six 

 thirty he will be in the field ready for a day's work ; at twelve he is 

 called to dinner, and it is one o'clock p. m. before he is in the field 

 again ; and at five he is called to his supper, and is back to his work 

 again at five thirty ; quits work at seven p. m. All told, eleven hours. 

 In common seasons there is not less, counting showers, than one rainy 

 day in a week ; some seasons considerably more, and it is seldom that 

 a tanner can furnish work in rainy weather for more than to pay the 

 board of his men ; thus neai'ly two hours of each day in the week is 

 stricken oft", leaving a fraction above nine hours a day for these five 

 months, the two or three months is one hour per day less, averaging, 

 perhaps, eight and three-fourths hours of constant work for the sea- 

 son of six or seven months. When we take men by the year, which 

 includes one-third winter for the whole year, one and three-fourths 

 hours less per day will be the average for these months, for we can- 

 not expect to work men in snow, sleet and rain, though the days are 

 short ; nor drive them out into the wood lot when the thermometer 

 is twenty-five degrees below zero. 



This reduces the average day's work for the year to not over eight 

 hours, in full accordance with the laws of Congress and the late deci- 

 sion of Gen. Grant. This, Mr. Chairman, is no chimera ; it is a fair 

 estimate described by fticts, and is the experience of one who has 

 employed men, both by the season and the year, for the last thirty 

 years. If other farmers will go carefully into this reckoning they will 

 find it a correct one, unless they have a better faculty to get work 

 out of men in bad and wet weather than has your humble servant. 

 Should the inquiry arise as to what is the cost of this labor here in 



