The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
175 
A Farmer’s Side of the Hired Man Question 
A I’>IO QUESTION.—Just now tlio discussion be¬ 
tween hired men and employers is holding my 
attention. The more I see and read of it. the more 
I am convinced that the problem of having hired 
I!| en and employers all perfectly satisfied with each 
other is a mighty big one. I think, too. that it may 
be a good thing for all concerned to let those who 
will have an opportunity to bring their grievances to 
the front, so that we can get each other’s viewpoint 
of the situation. 
Till’- EMPLOYER’S SIDE.—I am an employer. T 
live in town, so as to give iny family the best educa¬ 
tional advantages possible in my present circum¬ 
stances, 1 employ a man. who has a family, to live 
on the farm, driving each day myself to the farm and 
doing my share of the work for at least eight months 
of the year. I let ween September 1 and January 1 I 
keep myself employed in a business that does not 
permit me to do any more on the farm than to call 
around every day or so and direct the work. During 
these few months I depend upon my 
man to go ahead with the work, man¬ 
age it as I would if I were there, or as 
he should do it for himself. 
FRUIT AND GRAIN.—The big end 
of my crop is fruit. I have 40 acres of 
orchard, and have been getting good 
crops of pears and apples. That being 
the case, it necessarily follows that the 
months in which I am away are very 
busy months on the farm. In addition 
to the fruit we try to plant about 25 
acres of Fall wheat, a job that also 
comes in at that time of the year. I 
want to have a mail with a family that 
I could depend upon for a term of 
years, the term not necessarily speci¬ 
fied. The family I have is comprised 
of a young, husky fellow of about 30 
years, his wife, the same age, and a lit¬ 
tle boy of four years; just an ideal 
family. The wife is a splendid woman, 
an ideal housekeeper. The man has 
plenty of ability. lie understands farm 
work from A to Z. but I feel that he 
has not been as faithful as he should 
have been, and, above all. has not ap¬ 
preciated what is being done for him. 
• LABOR CONDITIONS—He started 
working April 1. I!*20. hiring for a year 
at $900. The first year he was a very 
good man, and I hired him for another 
year. 1 have paid him $800 as this 
year's salary, furnished a house, with 
all the natural gas in- needs for light 
and heat, and in ease there is a short¬ 
age' of gas I allow him to keep a wood 
stove going in Winter, furnishing the 
wood, allowing him time to cut it. and 
furnishing a man to help him. I keep 
for him two cows, a horse for driving, 
and 30 chickens, all of which he owns. 
The horse is stabled and fed the same 
as my own. The cows are fed as weit 
as any dairy cows in the vicinity. He 
is allowed to feed them just as he 
wishes. I have never asked what he 
feeds nor interfered with his wishes. 
In Summer they were fed grain twice a day. along 
with good pasture. In Winter they get all the Al¬ 
falfa hay they can eat three times a day. and a very 
liberal fet'd of grain night and morning. 
INCREASING STOCK—His flock of chickens has 
increased to double its size, and geese and turkeys 
have been added to it. lie lias kept a brood sow. 
selling two litters of pigs each year, although there 
was nothing in the contract concerning them. I have 
given him the use of a garden plot upon which he has 
grown all the small vegetables he needs and about 
50 bushels of potatoes. Half of these he will sell, 
lie is marketing now about 5 lbs. of butter a week. 
He gets all the fruit he wants to use. Each year he 
lias put into the cellar three barrels of selected 
Northern Spy for Winter use. 
THE HIRED MAN'S CAR.—Last Spring, in addi¬ 
tion to having a driving horse, lie thought lie ought 
to have a ear, so lie bought an automobile. I had a 
garage that I used for my own ear in daytime as T 
worked on the farm, but when getting his ho imme¬ 
diately took possession of the garage. From that 
time my car remained outdoors, hut I have not com¬ 
plained about that, because I was rather pleased to 
see him get a machine, I wanted him to feel and to 
be able to show to others that lie had a position that 
afforded him a reasonable amount of luxury. Things 
went fairly well until I stopped working on the 
place myself. After that he would not hesitate to 
take out his machine in the morning after breakfast 
and run an errand to town or anywhere else, and 
very likely again before night do the same thing. Many 
of these errands would take a half day of his time. 
LESSENED WORK.—From May until October lie 
never spent a Sunday on the place, leaving in the 
morning and getting back late at night. I keep no 
stock exee]it horses, so he is never burdened with 
chores. I have gone out to the farm in the morning 
and found him getting out to work at nine o’clock. 
I have talked to him on two different occasions and 
told him that if he did not give me better service I 
would expect him to find another place to work, but 
it seems to make little difference. Since the Fall 
work ceased L have known him to let the horse stable 
go without cleaning out for three or four days at a 
time; not a particle of bedding under the horses, and 
A Good Job for a Winter Evening. Fig. 6(S 
their sides and legs plastered with manure, while his 
cow and pig stables were nicely cleaned and bedded 
and the cows brushed and cleaned in fine shape. I 
have decided that I must make a change when his 
year is up, and I am sorry for it. It is not a good 
thing to be changing help. I am willing to pay an 
extx*a high wage if I get the right man. 
GENERAL CONDITIONS.—This year I am pay- 
iug $100 more than any employers in the neighbor¬ 
hood. and quite a lot extra in privileges. 1 x’ealize 
that my buildings are not as modern as they might 
be. hut they are comfortable. I have not got run¬ 
ning water, but have good water and very convenient 
to the house. As soon as I possibly can afford it I 
am going to install modern plumbing. I believe the 
farm help should have it. and I think it would be a 
paying investment. 
TWO SIDES.—Now. as I look hack over the pages, 
I admit that I have given only my side of the story. 
I have outlined my grievances. Now, the question 
is. what is the matter? Who is to blame? Right 
here is where it might be interesting to know just 
how the other fellow feels about it. or find out what 
excuse he would have to offer. Sometimes I feel 
that I ought to go out there, ask him to sit down on 
a chair in the house, in front of Itis wife and boy, 
xtml just toll him the story I have told here, and see 
what he had to sny about it, and just have an under¬ 
standing right there, showing what was what. 
NEED OF CONFIDENCE.—I am of the opinion 
that if employers and employees, and especially those 
engaged in farming, would get right down to brass 
tucks, talk over and have an understanding of the 
details of their contract, just as they would do in a 
transaction where something is bought and sold, a 
great deal of their grievances would immediately 
disappear, and far greater satisfaction would be ob¬ 
tained on both sides. 
FACTORY CONDITIONS.—The conditions that 
prevail in factories with regard to labor are so dif¬ 
ferent from those tip&g-the farm than an altogether 
different kind of management is called for, if these 
unsatisfactory coil.’’ ’»* 'ire ever going to be elim¬ 
inated from farm life. In''a factory, a shop, or in 
xi store, an employee works on piecework, takes a 
position among othei’ workmen where lie must keep up 
his end, or work under the eyes of a 
foreman whose sole duty it is to see 
that he gives the service that is re- 
quired of him. If his workmanship at 
piecework is unsatisfactory, if he fails 
to keep up his end as the work is 
passed along from one workman to an¬ 
other. or if in any way his work is 
fotxntl to be unsatisfactory, it is hut a 
short time until his place is filled by 
another man. There is no grinding on 
nerves and wearing out of patience. 
The matter is disposed of at once and 
forgotten. 
THE FARM CONTRACT.—It is dif¬ 
ferent with a farmer. He make a con¬ 
tract with a man, who oftentimes lias 
a family, covering a term of time. Con¬ 
siderable expense is incurred in getting 
the man and his family settled and 
ready for work. Once done, it is not 
an encouraging prospect for one of the 
two to find himself up against an un¬ 
workable situation, and either break 
the contract in some way. suffering a 
loss and a great inconvenience, or go 
through the term with nerve-wrecking, 
patience-breaking consequences. I would 
not say that understandings can be 
reached that would he a safeguard in 
every case, but in many cases a clear 
and concise understanding of just what 
each one expected from the other would 
go a long way toward the prevention of 
conditions that lead up to unpleasant 
relations later on. The success of it 
would depend very largely upon the 
minuteness given in working out the 
details of the contract. farmer. 
What About Wool Grading 
T 
Will you tell us how wool is graded? 
J. t*. c. 
■ IIREE rules are followed. The first 
is length of fiber. Wools of 2% 
in. or longer are called ‘’staple wools” 
in the fine grades, and as the grades 
become coarser the fiber must be longer to merit that 
term. In the low quarter-blood it must be 3 in. or 
niore. These staple wools are also called “combing 
wools,” and are handled over worsted combs, and 
the libel’s laid parallel. Under these lengths are 
“clothing wools." which are used in woolen mills, 
and the fibers are interlaced rather than parallel 
and then felted together. 
Wool is next graded according to condition, 
whether well-grown and cared for, or whether carry¬ 
ing burs, weeds, chaff, etc., or badly grown, also how 
well it is kept free from tags. Manure also affects 
the grade and flic price. Then fineness of fiber, the 
most exacting operation in connection with grading, 
is considered. This requires skill and experience, 
and is the one least understood by the average wool 
grower. The finest fibers come from the Merinos, 
and when it is staple or combing it is called Delaine 
Other fine wool shorter is called clothing. Delaine 
refers to a certain degree of fineness and length, and 
not to any breed of sheep, because, to be exact, there 
is no breed of Delaine sheep, but Merinos ordinarily 
produce Delaine wool. The English, instead of say¬ 
ing Delaine, say “(54-70’s.” the theory being that <>4 
to 70 hanks of yarn. 500 ft. long, spun to the finest 
yarn, can thus be made from a pound of clean wool. 
