The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1882-07-05
Too Many Hours.

There is one painful aspect of farm
life that calls for a change. No reform
in politics is needed more. 1t is that
farmers work too many hours. They
know this as well as we do; but it Is
one of those latent scraps of knowledge
that is never permitted to assert itself,
and the farmer plods on as if in deep
rut that it is impossible for him to get
out of. "I am working for all day."
said a hired man to us; "you work only
as the fancy seizes you." There is 8
lesson in this. Suppose the slow, weary
walk of the working farmer were quick
ened; suppose he rushed all of his work
the same as mechanics rush theirs; sup
pose, in a word, he accomplished in ten
hours the work that now employs him
from sun-up till sun-down, and then
passed pleasant evening with his fam
lily, would he not in the end accomplish
more work, and more effective work.
Would not his life be happier and more
worth the ivingp
The half-starved dog-t of many of
the farmers about us; the listless, life
less manner in which they perform their
drawn-out labors are the necessary out
come of labor too long-continued with
out change. 1t is as If the farmer had
journey of 20 miles to walk every day OF
his life over the same dreary road, with
precisely the same object in view. Al
its completion he is tired, and has no
spirit either to enjoy social intercourse
or to improve his mind by reading. He
has no energy left for thought. He falls
asleep at once if he attempts to read.
And so it is; the long hours of work de-
prive farmers of their best aid in pass
ing not only happy lives but successful
ones.
There is no occupation on earth that
Is better suited to render men happy
and intelligent than life on the farm, Il
rightly pursued, and there is no other
pursuit that is more abused to destroy
mans ambition, energy, and happiness.
We want farmers to be the rulers of the
nation, and that is what they are entitled
TO be. We want them to be the hap
piest, most vigorous and intellectual OF
men. They enjoy, more than others,
the free air of heaven; "agriculture Is
the most healthful, most useful, and
most noble employment of man." Then
why, instead of availing himself of the
opportunities that are everpresent, does
the farmer choose q dull, mechanical
routine of work that, while it yields a
support, takes away from life its sparkle
and usefulness?
The writer of this can not be accused
of knowing little of farm life. A part
of every pleasant day is spent in some
kind of outdoor labor in the field or gar
den, .r5 this has been the case for many
years. His experience has taught him
that constant work from sunrise till dark
incapacitates him for effectual work, and
that what is gained in actual labor is
more than lost in an incapacity to direct
others and to work with the best results
himself. -
As soon as we make farm work SIM
ply laborious, we lower agriculture to
the level of any ditch-digging, stone
piling, hod-carrying business that needs
but thimbleful of brains to guide the
Drawn and sinew that do the work. We
love and respect intelligent farmers
above any other class of men. But we
despise those groveling caricatures that
make agriculture the means of scanty
living, at the cost of degrading them
selves, their wives and children-Rwdi
NelO Yorker.