The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-07-26
Farm Managers.

!
to look over the columns in the papers
and to see the numbers who are adyer-
Using for places in which to work, and,
on the other hand. to note the number
of employers who are looking for men to
work, and we wonder why it is that these
do not get together. The cry OF scar
city of farm help comes from many Sec
tons of the country, and yet there are al
ways advertisements from men looking
| for places, while with the great prosperity
! that seems to abide over the country it
would seem easy for any man who wants
work to get it. One great difficulty, VIC
imagine, with the employers Is that bust
ness men, owning farms for which they
wish managers, think that they
should get men OF experience
competent to manage affairs for
them for far lower pay than
| they would think of offering to men com
petent to manage their city business for
them, and while the wages of mere Ia
borers have advanced they think that farrC
managers should still be had for laborers'
wages. On the other hand, there are
i hundreds of men who are looking for
managers positions who are only fitted
| to work under the direction Of some one
else. And it is this class of men which 80
quickly disguest the employers who are
seeking competent managers. Years ago
one of the Colleges of Agriculture was
electing new president. One OF the
board of trustees advocated the election
of gentleman and urged that he was a
| farmer of great experience. What do
we want with a farmer at the head or our
| colege?" said the Governor of the State,
who was eX-offco chairman of the board.
Il can hire farmer for 500 a month"
! And here Is just the rub. Men of means
who own farms have such little faith IL
improved agriculture that they look rpon
farmer or farm manager as sort Of
mental who can be hired for little pay,
and the result is inefficient help. Men
soberly advertise that they wanC a farm
manager and offer laborer's pay, ard then
stipulate that his wife must look after the
poultry for no pay at all. It is not sur
prising then, that men who are willing
to take a place with a wife thrown in
gratis, do not prove to be first-ciass man
ayers. When rich men who own farms
realize that it takes years of experience
| and good education TO make a competent
manager, and that in getting such man
| the employer has no claim whatever tor
any services but his anG that no self
respecting man who is fit to take charge
of business affairs will throw in his wife
to bind bargain, we will see less of this
sort of advertising and more real and
competent managers for places when the
salary for such work is commensurate
with it's value. There is a growing class
of men thoroughly competent to take
charge of farm enterprises, but they are
not to be hal for a day laborer's wages
with a wife thrown in, and hundreds are
losing money in the employing of incom
potent men as managers. because they
can get such farmers For $40 a MONTH
as the Governor said. Men OF experience
and brains in any calling can command
pay in proportion to their ability, and
farming nowadays is no exception To
get capacity you must pay the price for
it.
GOOD SOIL NOT NECESSARILY BLACK.
! Our Iowa friends are so accustomed to
associate a black soil with fertility that
they are apt to consider a lighter cCicr
of necessity poor. Il writer IN the Iowa
Homestead says: II was IN town recently
and saw some new potatoes from one of
the Southern States, and the dirt that
was attached to them was of a nice brick
/ color. This did not indicate a fertile
soil" If the writer of that note lived on
the Southern uplands he would find that
red is the characteristic color Of a great
portion of the soil and of the very best
SOIL In many places this red clay loan
is hidden by a gray sandy surface soil
filled with broken quartz rock of al.
sizes, the finest kind of macadamizing ma
terial Talking recently with a thought
full farmer of North Carolina we remarked
that we had often said that the blood red
soil of the Piedmont hills was all good
soil down to the fast rock, and that it
was really the best soil in the South. He
/ said that he could corroborate that. On
enc of his fields he said, he had let tie
road supervisor take off the entire soil
full of broken rocks to make a road with
using it as a matchmaking material. His
Heighbors told him he had ruined his lane.
But he plowed it deeply with three mules
abreast to a big pillow and sowed it IN
peas, made a heavy crop, and the follow
ing year put it in cotton and made a
bale per acre. He found that the taking
oft OF the rocky and sandy surface lad
merely opened up to him the real soil be-
low. In some parts of the country, par
ticularly in the glacier clays of the North.
observant farmers like Mr.. Terry, have
found that subsoiling is of Little value.
and IN such land they are doubtless right,
since the level lying clay soon returns to
It's original condition. But on the red
Ellis of the South there is nothing that so
helps IN the Improvement of the land as
deep subsolhng. And NOTHING so checks
The tendency of these red hills to wash
INTO gulhes as the deep loosening of the
lard clay below where the scratch blowing
OF the past has gone. The Southern up
lands have washed because of shallow