70 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Aug. 



speaking, and that is, the utmost importance 

 of the forest in adding beauty to the country. 



A landscape destitute of trees cannot be 

 beautiful in the highest degree, though every- 

 thing besides wliich nature could furnish and 

 all which art could add might be present. 

 Are not the striking features of any landscai)e 

 these old forests? Anotlier reason why trees 

 are so desirable as a means of beautifying the 

 country, is that they are so completely under 

 the control of man. The mountain, lake and 

 river, though objects so full of beauty and 

 sentiment, yet they nuist forever remain where 

 they were created ; but the trees can be moved 

 and transplanted at will, and therefore are 

 among the most useful of the beautiful ob- 

 jects of nature. 



Situated near the centre of the temperate 

 zone, we have all the most useful and beauti- 

 ful of the deciduous trees, as well as the finest 

 of the evergreens, and of all these dillerent 

 kinds, every one has its own peculiar shape 

 and color, ilower and leaf. 



Autumn, the pleasantest season of the year 

 to so large a majority of the people, would 

 lose almost every charm if the woods should 

 be removed. For beauty of coloring the 

 autunmal woods have no equal. The vivid 

 crimson of the sumach, the rich orange and 

 yellow of the sugar maple, the soft olive tints 

 of the ash, the scarlet, yellow and brown of 

 the oaks, and the gold and scarlet of the 

 flowering maple, are among the splendors un- 

 imagined by those who never beheld them. 

 And now, since, together with so many other 

 benefits, the forests are so full of beauty, and 

 since biauty is also usefulness because it 

 sweetens our bitterest cup with pleasure, pre- 

 serve and cultivate -the trees. 



THE "HIRED MAN." 



We have before us a half complaining letter 

 from a young man who has engaged as "hired 

 man" u})on a large farm, in which he recounts 

 his grievances, and wishes us to interpose in 

 his behalf. We do not think any good would 

 come from publishing his letter, either to him 

 nor to our readers. If he has contracted to 

 work eight months at a fixed rate of wages, 

 he must do so, or break his bargain. We do 

 not gather from anything he writes that his 

 emj)loyer is at fault in any part of his con- 

 tract. Our corresj)ondent complains of "hard 

 work and hard fare," which is the sum total 

 of his letter. 



Now we imagine his statement is a truthful 

 one, and a sample of too many of the cases 

 existing btitween farm hands and their em- 

 ])loyers. We spent a year of our minority at 

 farm work in Massachusetts, every working 

 day of wliieh found us up long before the sun, 

 usually at four o'clock in the morning during 

 the summer months, the day's work ending 

 only when it became so dark we could not see 

 to pull a weed or drive a nail ; and the visions 



of our cheerless sleeping room, of the fish- 

 hash for breakfast, morning after morning, of 

 the unvaried dinner of fried pork and pota- 

 toes, with never a delicacy, of the meanly- 

 spread kitchen table at which the farm help 

 hurriedly ate their meals, and the unsocial 

 bearing of the man who employed us, who 

 never spoke but to command or find fault — 

 still haunts us as a nightmare. The experi- 

 ence of that year's labor completely fitted us 

 to heartily sympatliize with every young man 

 who works from "sun to sun" on a farm, and 

 is obliged to live on fish-hash. We know all 

 about it. 



But that was years ago, and was in another 

 State ; and we have been told by more than 

 one young man who has "farmed it" in Massa- 

 chusetts, that farm hands there, as a general 

 thing, work harder, make moi'e hours, and 

 have poorer fare than in Maine. Even among 

 us, things have changed a great deal for the 

 better. Hired men upon most of our farms 

 always eat with the family, and have the same 

 fare. The stories current years ago of the 

 woman who set her table with the poorest 

 food within reach of the hired man, but who 

 would, despite her constant efforts at pushing 

 the plates of common food a little nearer him, 

 reach over them, and help himself to the 

 other, saying, "Don't trouble yourself , ma'am, 

 my arms are long enough to reach all over 

 your table" — are, we feel sure, rarely heard 

 now-a-days. Still, a young man who hires 

 out for a season, to work on a farm, expect- 

 ing to find easy work and short days, will be 

 disappointed. Farm labor is hard work — 

 there is no getting round it. But instead of 

 being monotonous, it is constantly varied, 

 and is one of pleasure to almost every intelli- 

 gent person. There umst be mutual forbear- 

 ance and a mutual regard for the good will of 

 both parties, for the employer and the em- 

 ploye to get along pleasantly together. On 

 the one hand the employer nmst not require 

 more service than is reasonable from the hired 

 man. Although there are times and days de- 

 manding harder work than others, yet when 

 these do not occur the employer nmst "let up 

 a little" on his help. A hired man knows 

 what constitutes' a day's work, as well as his 

 employer ; he knows when he has done 

 enough, and we would not blame him if he 

 did not submit to being "crowded." Time 

 enough to partake of the daily meals should 

 be given without feeling that the men ought 

 to be at work ; and a little time of rest after 

 dinner, when labor is not driving, is by no 

 means lost lime, but will be cheerfully made 

 up by longer days or harder work, when re- 

 (juired. Farm hands demand good whole- 

 some food, in sufficient (piantity ; and if an 

 employer fails to provide it, he assuredly 

 breaks his contract. JSIoreover, no farmer 

 ever lost a cent by giving his hired men a 

 good lunch about ten o'clock of a forenoon in 

 haying time — the recollection of such episodes 



