PRACTICAL PAPERS—FARM LABOR. 
855 
FARM LABOR. 
BY LEWIS CLARK, BELOIT. 
It is a very generally admitted fact that one great check 
upon successful farming at the present time is the want of 
steady, competent and reliable help. Many who have invested 
their capital in lands and stock have gone out of it for the 
reason that this could not be obtained; and others have been, 
on the same account, deterred from entering upon agricultural 
pursuits. 
The natural questions that arise are, why is it, and what is- 
the remedy? In my opinion there is a combination of causes,, 
probably many more than will now present themselves. 
A new country like ours was mostly settled by pioneers 
with limited means, and in most cases so limited that they came 
here because they were unable to purchase in a settled country; 
without money to procure stock, their attention, as a general 
rule, was turned to the raising of grain. That was easily done 
by shallow plowing and no manuring. Very little fencing 
was done; one fence, in many instances, surrounded a number 
of farms. 
It will readily be seen that but little steady help was needed. 
Those having boys of their own could manage theyear around, 
except during the harvesting and threshing. The straw was 
burned as fast as threshed, except one or two piles upon which 
the stock wintered, going daily and helping themselves. The 
hiring of a man through the winter was a rare occurrence. 
What became of the men that helped through the summer? 
Many went into the cities and spent, before spring, what they 
had earned in the summer; very few returned to fill the place 
they left the fall before. They went on railroads, in machine 
shops, and into various other employments where they could 
be steadily engaged. In looking among the machine shops, 
railroads, merchants and other branches of business we see 
