1905. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
247 
renting the 
m. j. p. 
NOTES ON THE FARM LABOR PROBLEM. 
Country and Town Compared. 
We find it very difficult to obtain good farm hands. 
Some of the help are persons looking for a job, through 
the country. They do not stay long, as a rule, and are 
not satisfactory, but occasionally one comes along who 
earns his wages. Most of the help comes from boys 
yet in their teens. The majority are inexperienced and 
indifferent, but it is almost necessary to have them or 
none, during the rush of the season. Many come from 
the towns near by. Country life seems too tame for 
most of the hands. Nights they want to congregate, 
visit with their opposite sex, attend dances, band con¬ 
certs, parade the streets, or go driving. Many require 
a horse and rig to be kept in addition to 
their high wages, board, lodging and 
washing. I think that if the hours of la¬ 
bor, including chores, were reduced to 10, 
many would be better satisfied; but insist 
on good, honest, steady work while in 
the field. Take more interest in the 
moral welfare of the help. Induce them 
to spend most of their evenings at your 
home, by providing entertainment, good 
reading, etc. Explain the wliys and 
wherefores in their work. Get them in¬ 
terested and I believe it will go a long 
way toward inducing more good help to 
come to the farmer for employment. 
Wages range from $20 to $25 per month, 
but arc too high. The average farmer 
cannot afford to pay so much and run 
his chances with the weather, insects, fun¬ 
gous diseases of plants and contagious 
diseases of animals. On the other hand, 
it really means as good or better than $45 
in the city, after deducting car fare, 
board, lodging, washing, laundry, and in¬ 
cidentals, the latter of which are many. 
Many farmers here are exchanging work, 
buying improved labor-saving machinery, 
fields out, and some have tenant houses. 
Sandusky Co., Ohio. 
In our county I find the trouble is mostly with the 
farmers themselves, preferring to hire three or four 
cheap hands rather than one good man who could han¬ 
dle the entire business. I can say for myself that I 
find it difficult to obtain a good permanent position on 
a dairy farm, and yet I have had years of experience 
in caring for stock, butter making, etc. When farmers 
will recognize skilled labor, and realize one good com¬ 
petent man is worth a dozen poor ones, then in my 
opinion the help problem is nearly solved. Our 
young men then will have something to encourage them 
to work on farms. But as it is now the cheapest man 
gets the job; then the farmer is dissatis¬ 
fied and says he cannot get good help. 
Let him go to work the right way and he 
will find the right man. j. M. c. 
Hemlock Hollow, Pa. 
It would be impossible to hire a man 
to work on a farm by the month here. 
This is not much of a farming town. 
Fish factory and stone cutting are the 
principal business done in the south part 
of the town. The work is mostly done 
by foreigners; Maine rocks are in 
every city. The north part of the town 
has some quite good farms, and it has al¬ 
most all been bought by Russian Finns; 
the women ‘folks do most of the work. 
If a man is lucky enough to own a pair of 
educated horses and plenty of tools, that 
is all the farm help I know of that he 
can depend on. M. M. 
Glenmore, Me. 
We find it difficult to get good help on 
the farm. We secure our help from 
neighbors, who are blessed with a large 
family of boys and few acres of land. 
I do not know of any help on the farms 
here without parents or friends within a 
few miles of where they are at work. I 
don’t know that men object so much to 
farm work, as there are a number of men 
living in a small village near by who work on farms 
from one to three miles out, but they seem to want the 
company and excitement that they find in town after 
their day’s work is done. As to wages, they of course 
vary, but about $20 to $22 per month for a season of 
seven or eight months are the average wages; this in¬ 
cludes board and washing; wages by the day in haying 
and harvesting are from $1.50 to $2, and there seems 
to be no difference in wages between the competent 
and the incompetent man, but the incompetent man 
has more leisure time, as the farmer dispenses with his 
services as soon as possible. As to a profit for the 
average man at these wages, it is a minus quantity. I 
know of no branch of farming except dairying where 
a man has tested and culled his cows for a number 
of years that will pay a profit at these wages. The 
farmers in these parts are planning to get .along with 
less help. Some are renting their farms, others are 
purchasing labor-saving machinery, so that you will 
often see a man with a small family of boys and girls 
from 10 to 16 years of age doing the work on quite a 
large farm and hiring very little help. c. f. w. 
Richmond, Mich. 
The two articles on the farm labor problem on page 
115 prompt me to give some observations that I have 
made in the last three years. I have lived on the 
farm, and been the “hired man,” and so I can speak 
from experience. From the beginning of 1888 to the 
close of 1893 I worked for different farmers, and I 
BOILING LIME AND SULPHUR IN A CONNECTICUT PEACH ORCHARD. 
Fig. 106. 
know what they require in a hired man. I was always 
treated as one of the family, and a young man must in 
the first place be respectable, temperate and not afraid 
of work, and of course must not stand on “hours.” 
Here in the city a young man, if hq works in a fac¬ 
tory, works 10 hours; if a clerk in a store, 12 hours 
and 15 on Saturday, and on the trolley anywhere from 
2 to 20 hours per day. Let a young man take a pen¬ 
cil and paper, and sit down and figure the difference 
between the city and country. In the first place, put 
down what w'ages he can get in the country. No doubt 
$20 per month for nine months and $12 per month for 
the remaining three months, which will be $216 clear 
money. No board bills, no laundry, and no car fare. 
Now what will he get in the city? Well, he may get 
A LEAFY RESTING PLACE. Fig. 107. 
$10 per week, likely less, and very seldom more. Fifty- 
two weeks at $10 per week is $520. Against that is 
board, $5 per week; laundry , 40 cents and car fare 
50 cents, which make $5.90 per week, or $306 per year, 
and then allow $40 for the extra dressing required in 
the city and the difference is over $40 in favor of 
the country. And then he does not have the tempta¬ 
tions or the thousand and one ways of spending his 
money in the country. I have lived and worked in 
both places, and I say stay on the farm, and make 
the most of yourself and your opportunities, and you 
will be more respected by your neighbors, and always 
have something for a “rainy day.” The country offers 
'opportunities for the worker that are lacking in the city. 
East Orange, N. J. o. 
Yes, we find it difficult to get farm hands of any kind. 
Hands in this section are mostly nearby farmers’ boys. 
Men get more money working on railroad and public 
works than farmers can afford to pay. Wages range 
from $18 to $25 per month, board and washing in¬ 
cluded. We would suggest that farmers farm fewer 
acres and farm the land better, thus producing just as 
much, and with less labor. a. w. 
Montpelier, Ohio. 
A TALK ABOUT IRON AND STEEL 
Modern Systems of Manufacture. 
In a recent article in The R. N.-Y. on fence wire, 
I spoke of the galvanic action of our modern fence 
wire. Perhaps it will be well to consider 
this matter more in detail. Cast iron 
contains from four to to five per cent of 
impurities, as carbon, sulphur, phosphorus 
and silicate. The best wrought iron is 
practically pure. Our old wire, sheet iron, 
tin plate, etc., was made from this 
wrought iron. The best grades of this 
iron were made with charcoal, such as 
Russian, Norway and Swedish, the best 
in the world. These were manufactured 
by puddling and forging the different 
grades of pig iron until the impurities 
were worked out. The Bessemer steel, 
of which all our fence wire,- most of our 
sheet iron, tin plate, etc., are made to¬ 
day is manufactured by melting the pig 
iron; while in a liquid' state all impuri¬ 
ties are burned out, and a certain per 
cent of free carbon is incorporated in' 
this iron as follows : No. 1. Extra soft, 0.35 
per cent carbon, for wire, sheets, plates, 
etc. No. 2. Soft, 0.45 per cent carbon, 
for tires, rails, etc. No. 3. Flard, 0.55 per 
cent carbon, articles subject to friction. 
No. 3. Extra hard, 0.65 per cent carbon, 
for springs, tools, etc. With no free carbon we 
have pure iron or decarbonized steel. We think 
right here is where the trouble lies; it is this free 
carbon. If this certain per cent of original carbon could 
be left in the steel in place of introducing the free car¬ 
bon, possibly this would improve it, but it has been 
tried and has failed, for there is no known way of 
gauging the right per cent of carbon. Then here is 
the question: Why not make fence wire of this pure 
iron or decarbonized steel? We know that this wire 
would not be as tough or have the tensile strength of 
steel wire, but it would answer the purpose quite well. 
The wire cables in the original suspension bridge at 
Niagara were made of this wire in 1848. A few years 
ago these cables were taken down and replaced with 
steel. The old wire was in a good state 
of preservation, except being hard and 
brittle, and steel wire will harden with age. 
I know from practical experience that ■ 
the old iron roofing and Bessemer steel 
roofing, both the same grades, were placed 
side by side, with exactly the same con¬ 
ditions ; the steel roofing lasted only 
one-third as long as the sheet iron. One 
has no carbon, the other has 0.35 per 
cent of free carbon. Both roofs were 
painted alike. The iron was put on 22 
years ago and the steel was added to it 
seven years ago. The steel has been 
completely rusted out at the eaves; the 
iron is fairly good as yet. 
Our old galvanized wire had all the 
zinc it would carry; our modern wire 
has all the zinc it will carry if you buy 
it that way, but the commercial galvan¬ 
ized wire has nearly all the zinc drawn 
or wiped off, and then the carbon wire 
is soon rusted out. For the last few 
years in this country, the sheet metal 
workers have brought such a pressure to 
bear on the manufacturers of sheet metal, 
for the old charcoal sheets, that at pres¬ 
ent there are a number of manufacturers 
making guaranteed charcoal iron, tin, 
sheet iron and galvanized iron that we 
can get any amount required. This costs about 
one-sixth more than Bessemer steel. Old reliable 
parties guarantee tin roofing to last 15 years; this 
is charcoal iron. It would seem that the pure iron or 
decarbonized steel would be satisfactory, but we can 
make no mistake in demanding charcoal iron wire with 
double A galvanizing. Our telephone companies are 
well aware of this; for some lines they specify double 
A galvanized iron wire, as in the cities, where the 
atmosphere is surcharged with gases and coal smoke. 
I have an idea that our present charcoal iron is made 
from this pure iron or decarbonized steel; if so it is 
all right apparently, for they do not hesitate to guar¬ 
antee and give bonds that sheets will last 15 years. 
Michigan. f. j. bailey. 
