VoL. LXXVI. NEW YORK, APRIL 20, 1018 No. 4478. 
City Boys as Farm Workers 
An Experience with One Camp 
■VST MISTAKES.—In the hope that my experi¬ 
ence with a camp of about 20 boy.s, on our fniit 
farm of several thousand young trees, may be of 
some use to those who plan to use boj'S on the fai’ms 
the coming season, I take the lil)erty of telling of 
some of our mistakes made last Summer. We had 
a mixed lot of boys, some Scoiits and a few high 
school. The latter were a little tlie older and felt 
themselves above obeying Scout rule.s, felt they 
could smoke, etc., and, being not much younger 
than the Scout loader who had charge of the camp, 
paid little attention to what he told them. Having 
a camp of Boy Scouts and a few high school boys 
should have had continually with them either a sec¬ 
ond “working fai-m supervisor,” who had had pre¬ 
vious experience in actual farming, or the farmer 
himself. 
WORKING IN GROUPS.—It has been said that 
“One boy is a boy, two boys are half a boy, and 
three boys are no boy at all.” This is true whore 
boys are left to themselves, but we ran the camp 
on the idea that large groups of boys, under effi¬ 
cient and con.stant personal direction of the camp 
supervisor, would accomplish more than the same 
iiumber of boys working singly, and necessarily with¬ 
out constant supeiwision. The farmer cannot give 
much time to supervising one or two boys, who may 
take a week to hoe a few acres of .squash, but he 
can and will give his supervision to get the same 
KEEPING THE WORK GOING.—Before going 
further let me say that there were weeks in late 
July and the month of August when it was impos¬ 
sible to find work for the boys on our farm or other 
farms on hoed crops or on our own fimit trees. 
Whether the camp Is run by one farmer or by a 
public safety committee for the farmers of a section, 
Avork has got to be found to keep the boys busy. 
We repaired a much-used wood road with the farm 
teams and help of the boys (they did a good job) ; 
got rocks onto the surface of a piece to be broken 
up (hvo boys working together with crowbars ac¬ 
complished a lot), and cut over 15 acres of birch 
brush, preparatoiy to bi-eaking the land for fimit 
ti’ees. The boys were veiy expensiA'e labor on cut¬ 
ting bru.sh. But Ave found Avork for them, and it 
Lunch Hour at a Country School. The liens pick Up the Crumbs. Fig. 218 
together, all of AMrying ages, ]U‘OA’ed entirely AA'rong. 
LACK OF EXI‘ERIENCE. —Secondly, the camp 
supervisor Ave had Avas altogether too young and in¬ 
experienced to keep discipline or gain the respect of 
the boys. He had had little farm experience and 
though he did the A’ery best that Avas in him, failed 
to get results. One mistake I made Avas in having 
him do two things (either probably enough to re- 
(piire the time of one man), namely, manage the 
camp, ordering food, making out time report.s, pay¬ 
ing bilks, etc., and also AA'ork Avith the boys much of 
the time in the field as a farm Avorker avIio .set the 
pace and keep the boys at Avork. The camp super- 
\isor should have remained at camp and looked after 
it alone, Avith Its attendant duties. Then, if the 
boys AA'ere to Avork in lai'ge units of 10 or more on 
the larger farms, a day or tAvo here and there, they 
job done in a day by a large gang of boys,^vho then 
move on to the next farm. Of course, if the farms 
are small, one or two boys right along “can help 
out considerable” with the chores, odd Aveeding, etc. 
IIoAvever, the larger farmer of today is not ahvays 
prepared to say in the early Spring that he Avill 
take, a certain number of boy.s, of uuknoAvn qualitie.s, 
and give them steady employment till Fall. From 
my own experience I should say that a lot of help 
at a given time Avould come in the best; a group of 
boys Avith their oavu supervisor to keep discipline and 
see that they did Avhat they Avere being paid to do in 
the right Avay, rather than tAA'o or three boys Avhom 
I Avould have to leave in the field AAdthout .super¬ 
vision much of the time, and Avhom I should liaA'e 
cause to Avorry about as long as they Avere not under 
my eye. 
Avill have to be found Avherever farmers make use of 
this labor the coming .season. 
DISCTPLINE AND ENCOURAGEMENT NEED¬ 
ED. — We learned that the boys needed constant en¬ 
couragement in their Avork for us and O'ther farmers, 
and also very constant supervision and discipline. 
Any idea of its being a vacation must be got out of 
a boy’s head before he starts, unless he Avorks on a 
countiy estate Avhere the OAvner rarely knoAA's the 
first thing about farming or getting efficient AA’ork 
from any of his “help.” Many of last Summer’s so- 
called successful camps, I belieA'e, Avei*e on countiy 
estates, not farms. We farm for a business, and I 
should like to say frankly that one-half of the 
Avages paid the camp supervisor and boys for their 
AVork from June 15 to October 18 (in all $2,000.05), 
if it had been paid at $3 per day to regular day 
