398 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Aug. 



calculation, constant personal oversight and 

 unremitting hard work there is no chance of 

 success. Even with these qualiftcations, the 

 profits depend upon the number of boarders — 

 one, two or three are often more trouble and 

 expense than profit. How can farmers talk of 

 economy when the circumstances of their fam- 

 ilies are so often against taking boarders. 

 The fact that they do board the hands often 

 necessitates keeping help within the house, 

 which by consumption and waste increases ex- 

 penses beyond what most men are aware. 

 Where this is done, if accurate accounts are 

 kept and compared with those when the fami- 

 ly are alone, boarding the hands may prove an 

 expensive arrangement. But allow the situa- 

 tion of the farmer's family to be favorable to 

 boarding the hands, all the profit that can 

 arise must be from washing, mending and 

 scrubbing for them ; for, if tlie men boarded 

 themselves, whatever of the farm produce 

 they needed could be charged to them, and 

 farmers would be in the same position as if 

 they lived in town and bought everything. If 

 our wives and daughters must always do this 

 in order to swell tlie yearly income, it must be 

 admitted farming is a poor business, and suc- 

 cess depends fully as much upon the wife as 

 the husliand. Experience with both plans has 

 demonstrated that the farmer's family can live 

 cheaper and more happily by themselves, and 

 the laborer cheaper and more contentedly 

 with his own family. Such is human nature. 

 The laborer will be perfectly satisfied at his 

 own table with what would excite no little 

 fault-finding and grumbling, if provided for 

 him by his employer ; and it accords with the 

 spirit of the times that every man should sit 

 at his own table and cut and spread his own 

 bread and butter. 



Another objection may be raised, that mar- 

 ried men must necessarily receive higher 

 wages than single men, and the question may 

 also be asked what shall those of us do who em- 

 plov help only two-thirds of the year? How 

 is this among the trades ? Is not the same 

 rule that governs them applicable to farm 

 hands ? A shoemaker with a large family to 

 support makes shots- at the same rate as a 

 stripling, provided he has no superior skill, nor 

 does a married carpenter or machinist receive 

 higher wages than a single man on account of 

 his family. Ability and experience regulate 

 wa""es. Farmers must remen>ber that in all 

 occupations which can be pursued only during 

 warm weather the highest wages are paid, for 

 something nuist be laid by for idle days. 

 Steady work and a permanent home are mat- 

 ters of prime importance toamarnedmau, and 

 are, in fact, a part of his wages. 



Farmers who keej) liel[) only a part of th(! 

 year are usually behind tinu' ; their work 

 drives them, and they are always in a lun-ry : 

 they cannot think of leaving home while the 

 ci'ops are growing and while employing help. 

 After the hands are discharged in the fall, the 



daily routine confines them closely to the farm, 

 and year after year passes without their leav- 

 ing for more than a few hours at a time. Not 

 unfrequently, too, the precious school time of 

 their sons, limited to one short term, is in- 

 fringed upon by winter work. Now the wages 

 of a man for the whole year exceeds the wages 

 of a man for eight or nine months only by a 

 small sum, while the relief of a man kept the 

 year round would bring to the proprietor by 

 leaving him free to go and come at pleasure ; 

 the benefit to the children to have their school 

 time without interruption, and the amount of 

 work which could be done in early spring and 

 late fall, to say nothing of what can be done 

 in winter towards forward permanent improve- 

 ments and in preparing for the busy season, 

 repays the additional increase of wages. 



The quality of farm laborers may be further 

 improved by paying experienced hands more 

 and inexperienced ones less. It is possible that 

 with the shovel and hoe, both may do the same 

 amount of work, but in feeding stock of twen- 

 ty or thirty head, an ignorant hand may easily 

 waste hfty cents worth of fodder per day, and 

 his employer not know it at the time ; and in 

 driving a team, a hand that worries his horses 

 or oxen, and is always meeting with accidents, 

 is dear help at any price. Thus throughout 

 the more important work of the farm, skilful 

 help is cheapest ; and yet how i'ew are willing 

 to make a difference of a few dollars per 

 month between an experienced workman and 

 a blundering, ignorant, green hand. The art 

 of farming is not a simple thing that can be 

 learned at sight or in one year ; but like any 

 mechanical trade it requires time. All the 

 regulations, and gradations in wages made in 

 the trades should be observed with farm labor- 

 ers. It will btimulate them to qualify them- 

 selves as thorough workmen. But when a 

 man of ten years' experience sees another of 

 only a few months', receive nearly the same 

 pav, where is the incentive to perfect himself 

 in "his work, or do any better than the second. 



The idea so prevalent among farmers that 

 they must be always in the field with their men 

 to lead them off; to do all the important parts 

 themselves; in fact, to work harder than any 

 hired man, besides having all the care, and 

 the moment one cannot do all this, he is 

 obliged to sell, should be corrected. Such a 

 state of aflairs shows plainly that something is 

 wrong in their system of dealing with help. 

 The remedy proposed is the one which pro- 

 vides cheap and jx'rmanent help for the Eng- 

 lish faimer. In and around large towns men 

 are readily found capable of taking charge of 

 gardens, green-houses, stables and teams, and 

 wiiat is there un a farm that they need to dis- 

 like or cannot learn to do. It is plain, I tiiink, 

 that whenever fiirmers shall adopt measures, 

 which will give to their employees the same 

 relative advantages as are enjoytd by those 

 around them, they will command as i)ermanent, 



