Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1888-07-05
Hours for Farm Work.

In most trades certain number Of
hours constitutes g days work. But on
the farm, says The Buffalo Express, the
days labor can not be exactly limited, at
least in northern ATTITUDES, when the sum-
mer days are long from sunrise to sun
down, and the winter days are cor
respondIDgly short. If ten hours were to
make a days working time the wage
Garner would fare rather badly. He would
have time to work in his little garden, if
he has one, in the summer, but in winter
he would do we'll to secure even eight
hours work in one day. The farmer can
not do as some of the trades-union are
endeavoring to compel employers to do in
Chicago-pay ten hours wages for eight
hours work. Hence the laborer who de-
ponds on farmers to furnish employment
during the winter must not expect to get
over eight hours wages per day during the
season when his family o4Poneee are
greatest. If he does this he should have
twelve hours pay for the twelve-hour day,
often worked on some farms in summer.
The season of long working days is COM
paratively brief, however, and on the
whole the laborer who insists on ten
hour day is not likely to make up in sum-
mer what he loses in winter.
We recently heard of farmer who
every year, when hiring his help, gave
them the choice of ten-hour day or a
flexible standard adopted to the varying
necessities of farm work. Most of the
men took his advice given at the time of
the bargain, and agreed to work in the
usual way, while those who stuck for the
ten-hour system soon repented of their
bargain and wanted to make new con-
tract. We have had some experience in
the matter, and found that a ten-hour day,
even in hayipg and harvest, was long
enough ordinarily to accomplish the most
work in a given time. In this case, how
ever, the men were hired for only eight
months of the year. The men would be
ready for work promptly at z in the
morning, and with an hour for dinner at
noon would be with little manage
ment, be able to close work by
| 6 or little after. This gave them
time to care for the teams, eat their sup
pers, wash or battle, and read an hour or
two before going to bed, partially rested,
and in a physical condition in which to
sleep would be perfect. The next morn
| ing they would be up betime, rested,
| fresh, and vigorous, the chores would be
done, breakfast eaten, and they would be
| in the field at In the best possible
physical condition to do good work
rapidly. The next reighbor, with the
same number of men, working until DARK,
and beginning soon after sunrise, as a
majority of farmers are accustomed to do
in haying tins, would average just about
| two thirds the quantity of hay housed Or
acres of ground cleared of hay and grain
| in the same time. His men and himself
were worn out by long days work, 50 that
their late suppers did not digest. their
sleep ives not sound, and they got up in
the morning nearly as tired as when they
| went to bed.
| There are times il the summer when
| the hurry of work requires more than
| day of ten hours, but with proper N anage-
ment there will not be many such days.
The men and teams can endure this ADDED
| labor and time for awile, but if it is the
rule, and not the RECEPTION, the Oyerwork
produces habitual WEAKNESS and listless-
ress, so that neither man nor team can
| do fair tan-hourday's work. In the
city workshop the daily ten hours work
must be given every day of the week, and
usually the work is very monotonous
after a while. On the farm the
work varies from month TO month, and
| often from day to day. To a man whose
attention and thought are given to his
labor this variety of farm work is pleas
| ing. Thought in single direction, on
one subject continually, becomes cra.np
| ed, and the man in time becomes q
machine. On the farm the variety of
thought increases the capacity OF the
mind, aud the general education of a
| farm er is better than that Of the mechanic.
| And the occasional necessity of doing
more than ten hours work in day is
I oftener beneficial than otherwise, as IL
ducing thought and study TO avoid the
1 too frequent recurrence of such extra
labor. A farmers day must be elastic,
| but its labor can be kept within certain
limits If his skill md ability for planning
are brought INTO exercise. Overworked
men soon become poor help, and at the
! same time the 5tickler for high wages,
even for poor quality Of labor, soon
finds that two or three days work pei
week, obtained here and there, are not
equal IN the long run TO honest work al
J reasonable wages.