488 © 
THE RURAL MEW-YORKER. 
business; although as a mere means of getting 
a living it is probably no worse, but rather 
better than the farming of 40 years ago. But 
the living of 40 years ago would be compara¬ 
tive poverty now, and in fact it would be m 
many ways, impracticable to the farmer of 
to-day. from Illinois. 
There is no fixed rule in regard to farm 
ing anything to the judgment of the laborer. I 
prefer having men of some intelligence, in¬ 
terested in their work, and encouraging'them 
to use their own judgment concerning de¬ 
tails, but in practice there are some objec¬ 
tions to this plan. Where there is but one 
hired laborer, payment of an extra price to 
a proved good man is wise. Where there are 
outing. He soon learned to harness a horse 
and rake and ted hay as well as a man, also to 
load hay. When he left he said: “As soon 
as school is out next June, I shall start for 
Rome for two months’ work on the farm.” 
He came this year and was valuable, helping 
in the hay and harvest fields, tedding, raking, 
loading hay and grain, and also mowing away 
51 
spend all they earn. Most of the white labor¬ 
ers are satisfied if they can rent a farm. Rare¬ 
ly does one buy a place. The renter will 
make more money than he would if he owned 
the land. W e can generally hire all we need 
at our doors. They come to us to hire by the 
year. We pay for a foreman §12 to §15, and 
to ordinary farm hands §10 a month, and 
furnish a house and garden, and allow them 
to keep some poultry and a pig and give them 
300 to 400 pounds of pork, 12 to 13 bushels of 
corn and five to 10 bushels of wheat per year. 
Variations in the quantity of these mark 
the difference in wages of the foreman and 
ordinary farm hands. 
Contracts are definite but verbal. One 
man is paid a dollar a month extra for doing 
milking and chores. All take turns in doing 
Sunday work. 
The above is the treatment all receive. I 
never heard of a hired man here failing to 
get all he bargained for or being turned off 
without good reason. The men occasionally 
leave in the middle of the year to the damage 
of the employer, but the latter has no redress 
even under a written contract, as the law 
secures to the laborer a good deal more prop¬ 
erty than he is ever likely to own. 
Theoretically, there is no doubt that it pays 
me better to hire a man at §15 a month who 
can earn §15 than to hire one at §15 who can 
earn only §10. Practically, inequality of 
wages is inadmissible ; the laborer himself 
will not allow it. Here, as elsewhere, the 
lazy and noisy ones rule the quiet and indus¬ 
trious, and will not allow them to do more 
than an ordinary day’s work. Nine times 
out of ten the laborer is demoralized by giving 
him more than the usual wages. The tenth 
man who can earn better wages and has moral 
force to earn them in spite of social influence, 
will not remain a farm laborer. He will soon 
either rent or own a place. 
I know of no one here who has ever tried 
city boys. Elsewhere I have heard that city 
boys taken from the class of mechanics and 
small shop-keepers have proved the best of 
workers. I think, on the whole, we have the 
best system of hiring farm labor, viz: hire 
your men by the year and give them a home. 
Let the young men board at home till they 
get married. 
The crying evil of the times here is “ the 
servant-girl question.” The supply of good 
girls is utterly inadequate to our needs. In 
this the city ought to help us, but it does not. 
Easton. c. f. Eastman. 
WEEPING EUROPEAN ASH. Summer View. From Nature. Fig. 15. 
laborers in this section. Frequently there are 
considerable variations in adjacent counties. 
Here most of the farm laborers are American- 
born with many Germans and a considerable 
number of other nationalities. Unfortunately 
very many save lictle of their earnings; too 
many of them are almost necessarily idle dur¬ 
ing the winter. A fair number, I am glad to 
say, do save money and become tenant farm¬ 
ers here or land-owners in the West. 
Perhaps one in three of the hired laborers is 
engaged “by the year.” Most of the others, 
aside from extra help for harvest, are engaged 
about March 1st, to work until “after harvest” 
or after “corn-husking.” From §16 to §18 per 
month with board and washing are common 
wages. When there are small tenant houses oc¬ 
cupied by married men, the money wages are 
frequently §25 per mouth. When the laborer 
is iu any sense a foreman, or is employed for 
special work, the wages may be more. 
Written contracts are the exception rather 
than the rule. 
The regular laborers are expected to do or 
help do the “chores,” and the necessary work 
on Sunday. My own recent experience and 
most frequent observation are affected by 
closeness to towns of abont 10,000 inhabitants, 
furnishing a large supply of laborers, espec¬ 
ially for “day work.” On the University 
farms our custom has been to employ two 
men with families, furnishing them houses, 
gardens, milk, etc., expecting them to be re¬ 
sponsible for feeding stock, and other 
“chores.” Usually they have given board to 
other laborers. We have paid §28 per mouth. 
1 'outrary to the usual custom here, we require 
but 10 hours’ field work a day; in winter it is 
less in practice. Our men are paid iu full 
each mouth. 
Generally speakiug, a fairly intelligent, 
energetic man can do better than to remain a 
(arm laborer long. Two or three years are as 
long as we have usually kept the better class 
of men. Some who have worked for us are 
now doing well as farmers, or in other bus¬ 
iness. Some of the best laborers we have had, 
have been young fellows of 18 or 20. 
When there can be direct and close super¬ 
vision, I believe that best pecuniary results 
will come from insisting on following out ex¬ 
plicit instructions closely, rather than iu leav¬ 
several nominally under like conditions, 
there are obvious objections to differences in 
the rate of payment. Usually in such a case 
I would think it better to get rid of the less 
desirable men than co pay them a less rate. 
We have had some rather satisfactory ex¬ 
perience with young men or boys with no 
previous knowledge of farming, or even with 
our language, but this is exceptional. 
So long as there is a good prospect that a 
good man can do better in some other way 
than by working as a farm laborer—and I 
hope this may long continue to be the case— 
we cannot expect long-continued service of 
intelligent men free to choose the place and 
kind of labor. So long as there remains so 
great a disproportion in the quantity of labor 
required on the average farm in summer and 
winter, farm laborers, as a class, w r ill be at a 
disadvantage. In so far as it is practicable, it 
seems to me iu every way desirable to try to 
furnish work throughout the year to desirable 
men, rather than compel them to be idle and 
an expense during the winter, or, at the best, 
to seek employment elsewhere. 
University of Illinois. o. e. morrow. 
CENTRAL NEW YORK. 
In regard to farm help hereabouts, they are 
mostly Germans or Irish. I could not say 
how large a proportion are American-born. 
Some lay up money; many spend all as they 
go. Usually a mau comes along and is hired. 
Wages vary from §10 per month and board to 
§18, or §20, the amount depending on the time 
of the year and the length of service. Written 
contracts are not common. All are required 
to help or do the chores on the Sabbath. All 
are well treated, as a general rule. Some men 
at cheap wages, are better than more expen¬ 
sive ones; first-class men are cheaper at good 
wages than poor men at any price, but such 
men are the exceptions, not the rule. 
I have tried the city boy, but the trial has 
always resulted in a failure. There is a de¬ 
cided dearth of good farm help. It isn’t that 
the men are unable to do the work, but they 
won’t. I am now in want of a good farm 
hand, to whom good wages would be paid, 
and a permanent place is offered, but a man 
with a pipe in his mouth won’t answer. In 
regard to the city boy, a lad of 14 from a vil¬ 
lage c.ime to my farm in 1S87 for his vacation 
the same, better than some men. A lad of 10 
years came with him the past year; both were 
willing workers and helped in the hay field, 
thus showing what some boys can do, if they 
try. J. TALCOTT. 
Oneida Co 
FROM MARYLAND. 
Most of the farm laborers of this section 
were born here. Three-fourths are blacks 
and one-fourth native whites. The negroes 
hunger and thirst to own a house and piece of 
land, aud where it is possible for them to 
purchase, they do so at any sacrifice. With¬ 
out some direct motive for saving money, they 
FROM WESTERN NEW YORK. 
During a life-time of nearly 60 years on the 
farm on which I now reside, “ the hired man” 
question has been regularly discussed as the 
season approaches for each year’s farm work. 
According to my earliest recollection, those, 
employed on our farm were young men of 
Puritan or New England stock, sons of the 
neigboring families and they were well skilled 
in all the requirements of the farm work 
of those days. As 'a rule, they 'were 
intelligent, industrious, of temperate and 
regular habits, and are to this day 
pleasurably referred to by the oldest 
farmers as models for hired men of the 
period. As time passed on, help of this kind 
gradually gave place to those of foreign birth, 
and the help of this locality for a time con- 
