770 
THE; RURAt NEW-YORKEH 
July 22, 
Hope Farm Notes 
I have been told that New Jersey now 
has a law which makes farmers responsible 
for any injury received by their hired 
hands while doing farm work. Is there any 
such law? s. l. p. 
You probably mean the employer's lia¬ 
bility bill which became part of the New 
Jersey law last Winter, and went into ef¬ 
fect July 4. The first paragraph of the 
bill explains its intent as follows: 
Compensation by Action at Law. 
“When personal injury is caused to an 
employee by accident arising out of and 
in the course of his employment, of which 
the actual or lawfully imputed negligence 
of the employer is the natural and proxi¬ 
mate cause, he shall receive compensation 
therefor from his employer provided the 
employee was himself not willfully negli¬ 
gent at the time of receiving such injury 
and the question of whether the employee 
was willfully negligent shall be one of fact 
to be submitted to the jury subject to the 
usual superintending powers of a court to 
set aside a verdict rendered contrary to 
the evidence. 
All Sorts. —The “hot wave” struck us 
In haying time. In New York City nearly 
150 people died from the effect of the heat, 
but out among the hills we had no great 
suffering to record. On a clear day from 
the high point of our farm you can see the 
tops of several city buildings. While at 
their feet the human tide was flowing 
over red-hot pavements we had breeze and 
shade and reasonable comfort. There was 
no shade in the hayficlds, but there are 
cherry trees under which we could drive 
the horses to rest while we mounted the 
trees for the fruit. The water came out of 
our drilled well at about 48 degrees, and 
the windmill kept at work through the 
week, so the tank went dry only once. By 
Saturday night the hay was in the barn 
and the oats were curing on the ground—• 
ready to be raked and hauled in Monday. 
. . . For dinner on Sunday we had our 
choice of the following rruits: Cherries, 
red and black raspberries, currants, black¬ 
berries, apples and peaches. The apples 
were the earliest Astrachans. The Alex¬ 
ander peaches are not the best, but they 
start the game. For vegetables we had 
potatoes, peas, beans, turnips, beets, spin¬ 
ach, onions, kohl rabi, lettuce, carrots and 
sweet corn nearly ready. There is no use 
talking meat this hot weather with such 
an outfit of vegetables. That is what every 
farm might have where there is soil and 
manure. A boy or an elderly man who has 
the feeling for it can raise a garden and 
make his labor count for more than any 
member of the family. 
“The right to compensation as provided 
by section I of this act shall not be de¬ 
feated upon the ground that the injury 
was caused in any degree by the negligence 
of a fellow employee, or that the injured 
employee assumed the risks inherent in or 
incidental to arising out of his employment 
or arising from the failure of the employer 
to provide and maintain safe premises and 
suitable appliances which said ground of 
defense are hereby abolished.” 
This bill was evidently designed to give 
workmen in factories some form of pro¬ 
tection, and to compel manufacturers to put 
in sanitary or life-saving appliances, but 
it will include farm laborers as well. For 
example, I understand that if one of my 
men should be injured while unloading hay, 
because the rope or track broke and let 
the fork fall on him, tie could hold me re¬ 
sponsible. To avoid responsibility I must 
prove “willful negligence 1 ’ in one of these 
particulars: 
1. Deliberate act or failure to act. 
2. Such conduct as evidences reckless 
indifference to safety. 
3. Intoxication, operating as the proxi¬ 
mate cause of injury. 
The law states definitely what the em¬ 
ployer must pay in case his workman is 
hurt. Where such workman is disabled 
for a time he can draw half his wages while 
he is disabled, but not beyond 300 weeks. 
The highest charge is $10 per week—the 
lowest $5, unless actual wages are less than 
$5. For total disability the same cash 
compensation may continue 400 weeks. 
Some other compensations are : 
Weeks. 
Loss of thumb, half daily wages for.GO 
Loss of first finger, hair daily wages for.35 
Loss of second finger, half daily wages 
for.30 
Loss of little finger, half daily wages for. 15 
Loss of great toe, half daily wages.30 
Loss of other toes, half daily wages.... 10 
Loss of hand, half daily wages.150 
Loss of arm, half daily wages.200 
Loss of foot, half daily wages.125 
Loss of leg, half daily wages.175 
Loss of eye, half daily wages.100 
Loss of both hands, arms, feet, legs or 
eyes will count as “total disability.” Noth¬ 
ing is said about loss of hearing, which is 
certainly worse than loss of little finger or 
toe! In case the workman is killed the law 
provides compensation for dependents vary¬ 
ing from 25 to 60 per cent of wages for 
300 weeks. 
Now this law was evidently designed to 
protect workmen in factories, and the prin¬ 
ciple of it is right. Human life has become 
too cheap in the rush for dollars, and this 
law ought to force employers to give their 
working people a fairer chance. A some¬ 
what similar law was declared unconstitu¬ 
tional in New York, but it is thought that 
this New Jersey law is sound. In England 
such compensation laws are enforced, and 
have been for years. We often see reports 
in the English farm papers where farm 
workmen have been paid for the loss of 
hand or foot while working farm machinery. 
New Jersey farmers should prepare for this 
law, but it will not affect them seriously. 
There are comparatively few accidents in 
farm work not due to carelessness or negli¬ 
gence. Suppose a man is unloading hay 
from a wagon. The farmer cautions him to 
get to one side when the hay fork goes 
up, as the rope or the carrier* may break. 
I have known a man to answer such cau¬ 
tion like this: 
“Rot! I know what I am doing !” 
Now if either rope or carrier should 
break and the hay fork come down on that 
man while he stood right under it, the 
farmer would not be responsible. I have 
known a man a little drunk to be working 
on a fodder cutter. The feeding table was 
clogged and this man reached in with his 
hand to clear it. The boss warned him 
but he persisted. If that man had lost a 
hand or several fingers the farmer could 
not have been held responsible. It would 
be a very nice question to decide how far 
a farmer would be responsible for the acts 
of a nervous horse which a hired man had 
whipped, or for injury done by a bull which 
the man persisted in handling without a 
ring and staff. 
While this law may hit some farmers 
through farm accidents, I think it a good 
one in its broad application. You ought 
to go into some of the cotton mills at the 
South and see the children whose fingers 
have been torn off. Human life is too 
cheap at best, and unskilled labor gets the 
worst of it Yet even this bill has its po¬ 
litical side. I have been talking with some 
politicians who tell me they think they 
see in this legislation a chance to “capture 
the State.” They intend to frighten the 
manufacturers by telling them what a fear¬ 
ful cost this compensation for injury will 
rove, and promise to kill or amend the 
ill if they can get back to Trenton. The 
scheme is for the manufacturer to put up 
the price of a few arms and feet and fingers 
as a campaign fund! x nave no doubt they 
will try to frighten farmers in the same 
way—but this little scheme will not work. 
Let us by all moans give the law a fair 
trial. 
I get some letters from people who say 
Mollie’s performance is not worth talking 
about. They have cows which beat her out 
of sight. I do not doubt it. There is no 
use trying to tell such people that we do 
not pretend to run any model farm, or that 
we have no star performers. All we try 
to do is to tell things as they are. I think 
the record of a failure might be made far 
more useful to the world than the story of 
some wonderful success. At least we have 
none of the latter to record. Mollie, how¬ 
ever, is still going on. Here is her record 
to July 9: 
April, 11% days, 28G lbs. milk cost. . $ 3.68 
May.1,029 lbs. milk cost. . 10.85 
June .1,001 lbs. milk cost.. 10.50 
July (8 days) .. . 256 lbs. milk cost. . 2.80 
2,572 $27.83 
This cow weighs about 800 pounds. So 
thus far she has given over three times her 
weight in milk in 80% days. She is fed 
10 pounds of grain per day. This costs 
about 1% cent a pound. We find that it 
takes about one hour a day to care for her. 
This is worth 20 cents to us. Many a 
dairyman will laugh at the idea of spend¬ 
ing 20 cents per day to care for one cow ! 
With a 20-cow dairy this would mean $4 
per day for care alone. I would like to see 
every man who does it got that amount. 
The job is worth it. Here we have another 
case where it does not pay to use the figures 
on one cow in estimating the returns from 
a large dairy. Take a man away from 
hoeing, picking or cultivating to care for a 
cow and it costs all of 20 cents on a fruit 
farm. Where dairying is the chief business 
it would not cost so much for each animal. 
I still insist that this milk is worth 
four cents a pound to our big family. This 
means $102.88 which Mollie has earned for 
us. Now if she had never been taken from 
the farm where she was born, her milk 
would now be coming from Delaware Co., 
N. Y., to New York, or to some factoi'y. 
Supposing she gave the same quantity, it 
would be worth at the average prices now 
being paid from $26 to $30—the latter a 
large price. We chai’ge ourselves retail 
price which is about what we have to pay. 
Thus this cow back in her old home would 
barely pay what we figure the cost of her 
milk without any charge for pasture or 
hay! In other words, ner owner back on 
the dairy farm would get less than 30 cents 
of the consumer’s dollar. 
The apple crop still promises well. I do 
not want another drought such as we had 
last year, but even with that the fruit has 
made such a growth that it seems secure. 
All the manure, weeds, trash or similar 
stuff that we can get is hauled and spread 
on the sod under the trees. I find it hard 
to get men to realize the importance of this. 
I would make it one of the most important 
rules on a fruit farm to put everything that 
can rot among the young trees. On part of 
our orchards the rye was plowed under, fur¬ 
rows made and a variety of fodder crops 
put in. We have four different kinds of 
corn, sorghum, Japanese millet and buck¬ 
wheat, all in drills. The buckwheat and 
the millet are new ones to me for drilling, 
but we wanted to know. The cultivators 
are kept going and in August either rye 
alone or rye and vetch will be seeded and 
worked in. Then the fodder crops can be 
cut and cured and the rye will come on. 
In one way we are like the man mentioned 
in the Scripture who bad no barn room 
for his crops. Our barns are running over 
with hay and straw. This farm never pro¬ 
duced more than it will this year, and yet 
we feel that we have only 1 begjin to learn 
how to work the soil. The oats were cut 
July 8, while the grain was soft and milky. 
If we can possibly handle the rye in time 
we want to plow the oats field and sow 
buckwheat with a mixture of Red and Alsike 
clover. It may be a little late for the buck¬ 
wheat, but if we cannot make grain we can 
have the field in great shape for next year. 
I believe in crowding a few acres hard with 
crop after crop, leaving the hills to the 
orchards. By the way our strawberries 
gave us a full supply from May 28 to 
June 30. That required five varieties to 
lap over. We had six quarts at least in 
our family every day. Marshall as usual 
went over the longest period, though the 
last berries were inferior to the first. It 
is, however, a stayer. We are potting 
plants, though runners are not made freely 
in this dry weather. 
There is one crop, however, that stands 
flood, drought or any other condition—the 
child crop. Our little folks jump out of 
bed and after bread and milk and fruit start 
their day’s run. Barefooted and blouse and 
overall clad they do their little work and 
their big play. They ai - e all over the farm 
—now in the t)ayfield, now in the garden or 
orchard, now on the lawn under the trees. 
At noon there is a stuffing on milk bread 
vegetables and fruit, and then another run 
till suppertime. They have no meat except 
a little chicken or bacon at times. When 
night comes they are washed and then they 
crawl into slumber deep and restful until 
the sun calls them once more. Great is 
childhood. I am glad that we can offer 
these little folks what T call the God-given 
right to a home and a happy childhood. 
H. w. c. 
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