1901 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
323 
THE FARM HAND PROBLEM DISCUSSED. 
Another Michigan Farmer Talks. 
In your issue of April 13 appears an article from 
“Michigan Farmer” in regard to the hired-help ques¬ 
tion. It occurs to me that the ?15 per month which 
he mentions as paying is an uncommonly low price 
to pay for the labor of competent men. The price is 
too low, even if the man were boarded, but in this 
case it seems he boards himself. I should expect ar- 
KEMODELED TENANT HOUSE- GROUND FLOOR. Fia. ISO. 
tides to be missed, and men to take advantage in my 
absence, and things to go wrong in general, if I hired 
men who would work for such wages as that; for 
either the man is incompetent, or he places a fear¬ 
fully low value upon himself if he will sell his labor 
for such wages, and in either case I should not want 
him. If farmers expect to retain the same class of 
help as gravitate into other lines of business from 
the farm, then they certainly must pay somewhere 
near the wages that other lines of business pay. Cheap 
prices buy cheap goods whether it be in merchandise 
or in labor, and farmers must wake up to this fact, 
or their best men will leave them either to obtain 
homes of their own or sell their labor where it will 
bring the better price. hay sessions. 
Antrim Co., Mich. 
The Hired Man's Side. 
In your issue of April 13, you comment on the ideal 
farm hand. He will never make his appearance dur¬ 
ing the reign of the present razorback employer. Here 
in this vicinity a man is expected to work 13 or 14 
hours a day in Summer and as much more as his em¬ 
ployer can get out of him. A young man here who 
thoroughly understands the dairy business, the care 
of stock when sick or well, good milker, understands 
care and use of horses, handy with tools, who can do 
almost anything in the jack-carpenter or wheelwright 
line, who spends rainy days mending harness and 
doing other repair work, thoroughly reliable every¬ 
where, sober and industrious, asked his employer for 
a slight raise of salary, no more than other farmers 
of his class wei'e paying. He was informed that his 
employer could secure other help at the wages he is 
now paying. Now, if intelligence is of no use to 
farmers, why do they ask it, and if they ask it, why 
should they not be willing to pay for it? The fact is 
that good working fools are what is wanted, who will 
work all night or Sunday without comment. A man 
of intelligence cannot afford to waste his time on a 
farm at starvation wages when there is such a de¬ 
mand for his services in other lines. J. m. b. 
May brook, N. Y. 
How to Get Help. 
1 think Michigan Farmer starts right by giving his 
year man a house and privileges, but he will be a long 
time getting a really good man for $15 a month who 
must board himself out of it, no matter how mucn or 
how little he works. This is not enough under any 
circumstances. A man who is the son of a farmer, 
but has roughed it in working out, said when I read 
the article that he would expect any man to steal and 
soldier about as this man seems to if the pay was 
so small. "I know of a young man,” said this man, 
who gets $22 and board and washing for nine months 
a year, and he has a horse to drive whenever he wants 
it.” Certainly $15 a month would not board a man if 
he had to hire it of some one else, and it would not 
leave much to support a family on if it was provided 
by the man’s own family. A farmer who, several 
years ago, found himself without a man, wrote to the 
Commissioner of Immigration at Castle Garden, New 
York, and asked for a good man with family, prom¬ 
ising him a permanent home if he proved satisfactory. 
In return the Commissioner sent him a Swede, paid 
his fare to destination, saw that he had family bag¬ 
gage enough to insure his following it, checked it to 
destination and sent the check to the farmer. The re¬ 
sult appears to have been eminently satisfactory to 
all concerned. The man “worked in” all right aud 
stuck to his old-world frugal life, so that he steadily 
accumulated money, and soon he will own his own 
farm and have it pretty well paid for. It is a neat 
thing to do, for the country as well as the individual. 
If the common renter of land, who is now the chief 
source of impoverished farms, could be handled In 
that way, there would soon be a vast improvement in 
the condition of the farming community the country 
over. JOHN CHAMBERLIN. 
Erie Co., N. Y. 
Tenant Houses on the Farm. 
Very little is said in our rural papers concerning 
help on the farm. With us, however, it is a matter 
of no little importance; but the help problem has been 
solved to our satisfaction; and so pleased are we with 
our present system of hiring, that we desire to give 
others the benefit of our experience. We consider it 
best for all concerned to hire married men, furnish¬ 
ing them house, garden, firewood and milk; or, if 
preferred, keep a cow for them. I never hire without 
a written agreement, a copy of which, signed by both 
parties, is kept by each as a memorandum. Supposing 
I am to pay $225 per year, I draw up a writing to that 
effect, adding that it is to be paid monthly, as follows; 
.January and February, $12 each; March and April, 
$18 each; May, $20; .June, $26; July, $30; August and 
September, $20 each; October, $18; November, $17, and 
December, $14. Then add whatever I am to furnish, 
also a clause stating that the hired man is to be pres¬ 
ent every day at milking time, or furnish a substi¬ 
tute. This plan of varying the monthly payments 
TENANT HOUSE-FIRST AND SECOND FLOORS. Fia. 131. 
with the seasons is, I think, the safest way for a 
farmer to hire, as there is not a month in the year 
when some other might not be hired to do the same 
work, at the same wages. As a rule, eight hours in 
the field is as long as we work; and as each man has 
from eight to 10 cows to milk I consider that long 
enough. If I am absent at milking time (which sel¬ 
dom occurs) the one who milks my share of the cows 
gets a quarter for his trouble. There are many farm¬ 
ers who hire one or two men the year around, and al¬ 
ways hire single men, at so much per month and 
board. If you suggest to one of these men that it 
would be better to hire a married man and let him 
board himself, he is almost sure to say he “does not 
doubt it, but cannot afford it.” Perhaps he has no 
house for a hired man and feels that he cannot afford 
to build, so he goes on in the same old rut, letting his 
wife cook, bake, wash and iron for his helpers, seldom 
sitting down to a meal with his family alone, when 
by a little extra exertion on his part, a neat little cot¬ 
tage might be built and a man hired who perhaps 
would give much better satisfaction, with more pros¬ 
pect of a long term of service; and when a man has 
become thoroughly acquainted with a farm and the 
lines upon which it is managed, his services are worth 
much more than while he is learning; and on the 
other hand, the prospect of a permanent position with 
increase of wages is an incentive to a man to do his 
best. The two small tenement houses, plans of which 
are shown in Figs. 130, 131 and 132, cost so little and 
at the same time are so neat and attractive, com¬ 
fortable and convenient, that no one need say he can¬ 
not afford to build. Fig. 131 is built of hemlock with 
the exception of the shingles, which are red cedar. 
It^loors of the best hemlock flooring, walls of planed 
stock lumber, double boarded with building paper be¬ 
tween; battened on the outside and finished inside 
with 4%-cent muslin, which by some, is considered 
preferable to plaster for walls that are to be papered. 
The lower rooms are eight feet high, the upper ones 
seven feet. The cellar, 13x16, is seven feet high. The 
following shows the cost of building, making no ac¬ 
count of my own work, or stones for cellar wall, 
drawn from our own fields: 
Lumber and shingles.$120.38 
Doors and windows. 21.95 
Hrick for chimney. 2.80 
Lime and sand. 3.00 
Hardware, building paper and paint for in¬ 
side . 9.18 
Muslin . 11.25 
Carpenters’ work. 22.80 
Masons’ work. 9.00 
Common day labor. 14.05 
Paint for outside. 5.00 
Total .$219.41 
I am unable to give the exact cost of Fig. 130, as it 
is an old house remodeled, but feel saie in saying 
that the difference in the cost of the two houses would 
not exceed $50. J. s. 
Allegany Co., N. Y. 
An ex-Farm Hand Talks. 
I was interested in the article in The R. N.-Y. in 
regard to an ideal farm hand. There are plenty of 
such men, Americans, too, who might be had if farm¬ 
ers are willing to pay for their services, I will not 
say as much as they can get as common day laborers, 
but I will say reasonable pay for the services de¬ 
manded. 1 agree with the “year man” that he has not 
got a “good thing.” I have worked on a farm in every 
State between Maine and Nebraska, taking in Michi¬ 
gan—so I know something about farm hands and 
farmers, and I have left farming several times to go 
to work on the railroad. I did not leave the farm 
for the railroad because I liked that better, nor alto¬ 
gether because of the money. An illustration will 
show. I was looking for work in Illinois one Spring. 
I heard of a man who wanted a hand, and called to 
see him. He wanted a man to work for $18; I wanted 
$20. We compromised on $19 and the hired man to 
pay for his washing. That man had nearly 100 head 
of stock, and kept no hired man in the Winter. When 
I began work there were more carcasses of cattle ly¬ 
ing out in the cornfields, starved and frozen to death, 
than would have paid the wages of a man at $20 per 
month for a year. It is unnecessary to say I did not 
stay with that man long. I left him and went to work 
at railroading at $50 per month, and sometimes made 
$25 per week. Board and room cost me about $18 per 
month, and $2 for washing left me $30 per month 
without any extras. I should have preferred to work 
for a good man on a farm for $25 per month, and I 
am only one of many more of the same mind whom 
I have known. Then there is another class of farmers 
with whom I have had some experience. I hired to a 
man once who laid out work enough to occupy the 
time of three men and six big horses two years, and 
wanted me and one darkey with three small mules to 
do it in one Summer! That is the trouble with the 
average farmer. They have work enough fully to oc¬ 
cupy the time of three good men and teams; then 
they hire a man for $12 to $18 per month and perhaps 
only one team, or possibly three horses, on the farm, 
and they try to do the work by crowding everything 
from the time that they can see in the morning until 
it is dark at night. If farmers would use more reason 
and common sense they would be able to make farm¬ 
ing “pay,” and we should not hear so much of the cry: 
“Farming don't pay.” I say that a man who does not 
REMODELED TENANT HOUSE—SECOND FLOOR. Fig. 13’2. 
make $1,000 profit on 100 acres of tillablo land, is not 
working that 100 acres to the best advantage. 
I’lymouth Co., Mass. farm hand. 
R. N.-Y.—We would like to ask ’‘Farm Hand” if he 
can make any such profit himself! 
The Time to Quit. 
“At 45 begin to prepare for the time when some younger 
hand must take the reins. Don't hang on too long,’’ 
say.s The U. N.-Y. on page 257. 'that depends on how he 
has lived. If he has taken a lot of whisky and not taken 
as goyd care of himself as he has cf his horse, it may be 
so, but if he comes of good stock and has lived right the 
best 15 years of his life are to come. 
A MICHIGAN READER. 
U. N.-Y.—We are willing to put that to a vote! Let’s 
hear from llie thousands of R. N.-Y. readers who have 
lived “rif/ht”! Our idea was that it is well to get out of 
the harness gracefully before it grows fast to the shoul¬ 
ders! 
