Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1901-10-01
seNsFITs OF FARMERS PlcNlcs.
A PLEA FOR MORE HOLIDAYS.

ed 10 have easy tasks. &c may well MAKE
us think hard, this fact that the Ameri
can farmer works harder than the slave
of Spanish master-and Spanish mas
tiers are not thought to be very humane
When abroad, it seemed to me tha
the foreign farmer and farm labOrer die
not work as hard as their brethren il
this country. Ordinarily they did no
have such long hours, and certainly they
had more holidays. The Britishe
especially has learned how to combine
business with pleasure in the towr
market, and to make out of market day
a day of profit aad also of social enjoy.
ment. In all the foreign countries thai
| visited-on the continent as well as in
England, Scotland and Ireland-the farm
laborers had far more merry-makins
among themselves outside of work
hours than they have in this country.
do not say anything about how they are
housed and fed. My point is that they
do not work SO hard as farm labOrers iI
this country, and the difference between
the work done by the farmers abroad
and in this country is yet more marked.
Even "the man with the hoe" in France
takes time when about his work, OF
after the days work is done to laugh
more and to talk more with his acquaint-
ances and friends than the man with the
riding cultivator does in this country.
The American farmer works more
hours than his horse or his mule. The
only creature on the farm that possibly
works longer and harder than he does is
his wife. The American farmer is the
hardest working civilized farmer on the
globe. Considering the natural advan-
tages he has, the very fertile soil that
produces so abundantly with so little
labor, and the smooth land that permits
so much work to be done by machinery,
he ought to be the greatest holiday
maker among the farmers of the earth.
They might well learn lesson from
the experience of the workers in several
trades. Certain skilled workers have
made a long fight for a shorter working
day. 1t has been hard struggle, but
one position has been won after another.
The working day has been shortened to
IA, then l3, then II, then 10, then 9,
then s hours, and the wOrkmen have
found themselves actually better of,
better fed, clothed, housed and educated
by their wages when they labor only
eight hours per day than were their
forefathers who labored twice as long.
1t is only too true that all work and no
play makes dull workman, and that a
bright brain will accomplish more in an
hour than tired muscles will in ten.
Just as surely as farmers shorten their
working day, up to certain limit, will
thew be better off. They will find more
profit in their nine-hour day than the
eight hour day so fashionable now at
certain seasons-eight hours before noon
and eight hours after. If they work
only nine hours day, they will have
time to read, to consider, to think, to
plan, to mix together and exchange
ideas, and to sharpen their wits by con-
tact, and they will be better off than
they are now. OF course one man can
not begin at bound to work only nine
hours a day, and do better than he is
doing now. The movement to shorten
the work day must have agradual effect,
and must affect the mass of farmers.
Picnics and all holidays will have the
effect of shortening the work day, by
showing the farmer that he can work a
little less and yet live.
Those that work the most hours are
not the most prosperous. This is true
of individuals and classes. The man
that works fewer hours and thus gains
time for improvement, for study, for the
gathering of facts and for their intelli-
gent consideration, for fOrethOught, for
wise planning, will accomplish more,
will be more prosperous than the man
that works so many.hours that he is dull
like the OK and can not study or reason
or take forethought. The classes that
work the fewest hours are, as general
thing, the best paid and live on the
highest plane. And it is significant that
as the labor of children has been cur
tailed, and woman has been taken from
work that kept her out of the home, the
wages of the man have increased until
the family has rs much as it had before.
Conversely, it has been demonstrated
wherever women have gone TO work be-
side their husbands, and their children
have followed them, that soon the wages
or the family fell to. figure below the
wages of the man alone before his wife
or children Joined him in the mine or
shop. The experience of all other
classes teaches the American farmer to
work fewer hours per day, and to have
more holidays.
The farmers picnic need not be all
fun and merry-making. Instruction
NAV be mixed with the fun. Recreation
may as truly be found in listening to an
instructive address under the trees as in
shooting the chutes. But | would have
the fun-making put first. Although
was the ''orator of the day" at several
farmers picnics this summer, l was glad
to observe that quite a number did not
come to hear me, but strayed under
the trees or shot the chutes or bOwled
or danced or simply sat and talked. My
sympathies were with them rather than
with those kind enough to listen to
me. / wanted the farmers at those
picnics to get as far as possible from
their fields and flocks that day. They
had, knew, too few days when they
left the work and care of the farm be-
hind.
Laziness is crime, and it is the duty
of every one, rich or poor, high or low,
to work to the limit of his strength in
the way that will not shorten his useful
ness, and with such powers as God has
given him put to their highest use. But
in that last clause there is much. Man
must not dull his brain by too long
hours of hard physical toll. Certainly
would not advocate Incidence in any
ones life, but he who will teach the
American farmer to have more holidays
and to work fewer hours with his hands
will confer great benefit on American
agriculture. 1t will result in more brair
work, and higher and better paid class
of work on our farms.
And of farmers holidays, that which
finds it's expression in a rousing picnic
under trees, with swings and dances and
lemonade and foot races and love max
ing and swapping stories and lecture
not prosy and not too instructive-that
commends itself most highly to me-
John NJ. Stahl in The Country Gentle
| man,
CLIPPINGS.
WNo foot, no horse" is an old and