The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1879-01-02
Skilled Labor.

AMERICAN agriculture is undergoing
a rapid change. The capital invested
in it is increasing moro rapidly than in
any other industry. The cheap lands
with poor dwellings,, occupied by the
pioneers, have become well-tilled farms
with buildings costing three times as
much as the original value of the land.
The sickle, scythe and cradle have
given place to the mower and reaper.
Most farm operations are done by ma
chinery which requires some mechani-
cal skill to manage. The evident tend
encyis'to work larger farms, the oper.
ations of which the owner can only
superintend, the labor being almost
wholly hired. It costs less, in proper
ton, to work 200 than 100 acres, and
still less as the farm grows larger, pro-
vided the labor is skillfully directed.
And the more machinery is substituted
for hand labor, the stronger will be
this tendency to absorb the smallerinto
the larger farms. This has been the
result in Great Britain, and it is not
likely to be avoided in the United
States. We believe it would be batter
Cor the indivi@ 1al independence Of the
farmers if the small holdings might
continue, instead of their being aggre-
gated together, and the present pro-
prietors, more or less, becoming labor
ers. This result cannot be avoided,
except by cooperation in the purchase
of machinery to work small farms.
But this change is strongly. demand
ing the Substitution of skilled labor on
the farm for the very unskilled labor at
present employed. One of the greatest
impediments to successfully carrying
on farming on a large scale, is the fact
that there are no skilled laborers in the
market. Farming has been carried on,
in this country, so much at haphazard,
and with so little order and system,
that ]aborer, when he can find moth
ing else to do or succeeds in nothing
else, offers his services to the farmer.
On the farm he regards success as Ger.
taill.s The consequence, is that the la
borers are entirely .unskilled, in the
parts they are performing, aud unless
directed by. unusual activity and knowl-
edge, the work must be badly done. ! It
requires skill everywhere in farming
skill to lay out field for the pillow, to
turn fine straight furrow, to put it in
fine filth for the seed, to sow the seed
accurately; skill in cutting and curing
grass, in harvesting grain; still greater
skill In raising and feeding animals;
skin In milking and managing cows;
skill In, all the. operations Of the dairy.
Indeed, what operation in agriculture
does not require ,skillP, And yeta large
part of all these operations is carried
on by laborers new to the business, and
who perform them in the clumsy way
of novices, at wages which in Europe
are only paid to skilled mechanics.
Perhaps this explains why the farmers
profits are all gone, when he hires the
labor to carry on his farm.
The manufacturer never carries on
business with such unskilled labor. His
workmen have served q regular APP
premiership at the various branches Of
his manufacture, and he can estimate
with a reasonable certainty the profit
| upon each workman. The English
farmer stands on as favorable ground
as the manufacturer, having skilled
laborers at his command, and can
make reasonably certain calculation
upon the result Of their labor. The
English plowman serves an appren-
lticeship at this most important specially
from the time he is old enough to reach
the plow-handles till he becomes an
expert; whilst the American farmland
thinks he can perform this skilled
operation without any previous prac-
tice! The American Farmland makes
up in assurance what he lacks in prac.
tical knowledge. But assurance, how.
ever important in desperate enter.
prises, will never lay a straight and
even furrow. The American farmer
is, no doubt, saved from even greater
losses through unskilled labor, because
a large percentage of his labor is done
by machinery, which works much
more perfectly than the unskilled hand
But the cost of wear and tear of ma
chimes operated by ,lnskilled hands, il
much greater than if they were run BY
experts. to'lHa s5a
tits evident that the changed condi
ton of our agriculture must soon com
pei the employment Ut skilled hands
and these skilled hands must be edu
Gated before they can be employed
Agricultural laborers are composed toe
largely of q floating. unsettled class
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