Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1904-02-22
OUR FARMERS.
AS THE HIRED MAN SEES 1T.

owing TO failing health my physician
advised me to go on a farm and get
down to hard work. To insure this,
I regularly hired out to farmer and
for two years have been working on
a farm. Some few observations upon
the question of bred help, from the
viewpoint of the hired man, may
therefore not be out of place.
Farmers almost universally COM
plain of the trouble in securing and
keeping hired help, and yet the
difficulty lies almost wholly with
themselves. Too many of them
regard the farmer as mere machine,
out of which they must get the
greatest amount Of work at the least
possible cost. They do not consider
that he is man with like passions as
their own, and with the same desire
for a little relaxation now and
then from the eternal grind.
What is the life of the ordinary
farmland? Up at five O'Clock, an
hours work before breakfast; then
to the fields until noon; out again at
one O'Clock; work until six; supper;
then chores until seven O'Clock or
later, with an occasional extra hour
or more for good measure. How are
his personal comforts looked after?
A corn busk mattress, wash out OF
doors, and in winter a seat behind the
kitchen stove after supper, with the
light too dim to read by, even if he
had anything to read. To bed at
nine and next day the same old grind.
Should he wish to go to the village,
perhaps, to make few necessary
purchases, he must walk, while the
farmers son always has conveyance
at his disposal. This is no fancy pic
ture, but the life of nine-tenths of the
men on the farm. Is it any wonder
| that good ones are hard to get?
| Contrast this with the life of his
brother in town Or city, who goes to
work at seven in the morning, with
an hour for dinner, quits at six and
has the evening to himself to do with
as he pleases, and you will not wonder
that men flock to the city.
I recently heard farmer say he
liked to live as far from town az pos
sible, so that there would be no
temptation for his hired man to go
there. He expected him to work
fourteen hours a day for poor pay
and yet begrudged him an occasional
eveLing in town. And yet that same
farmer would drive to town nearly
every day and spend a couple of
hours swapping lies in the country
store and talk about how hard it was
to get good hired help. Another far
mer Of my acquaintance complained
because his hired man did not take
enough interest in his work. He was
working him fourteen hours day
and had not paid him a cent for three
months. And yet tbs man took no
interest in his work! Marvellous,
was it not?
One of the greatest troubles with
most farmers is this unwillingness to
pay promptly, and yet to secure good
help this is of the utmost Importance
The laborer is worthy of his hire, and
no reliable man is going to work fo1
another without pay. How long
could an industry in town Or city be
run if the employer failed to pay his
help? Not a single week. And YET
the farm hand is expected to go fo1
weeks or months without pay and
then is too often compelled to accept
a portion of it in store orders. I re.
Gently heard hired man say that he
had never received more than So OF
at time from his employer and every
time he asked for money was made
to feel as though he had committed {
crime. The farmer seems to thinf
the hired man has no need of none,
and that store orders are as good a.
cash, and that is where he makes
, grave mistake.
Again the hours of work on farm
are too long and for no good reason
Ten hours is long enough and is bet
: ter for both horses and men. Their
:: is no reason why farm work canno
be done on the same business princi
Piles as that of a manufacturing in
dustry in town or city. know on
a man who begins at O'Clock in tn
e morning, quits at half-past II, begin
3 again at 1, and quits promptly q
1 half-past 5; then milks. And tina
y man does more work team for tear
and man for man than his neighbol
l who drag out fourteen hours. Fl
: works while he works and men an
;, teams never drag.
h Again many farmers work over tin
&c any many of them on Sunday. rec
oenize the fact that conditions on
IS farm are different than elseWher