The sun., 1904-07-17

| begun as farm hands, and worked into
farming, either as lessees or as owners,
| The farm hand OF one generation Is the
independent farmer OF the next.
| Now, with the farm hands ducking out
as soon as they found themselves ahead
| to the amount Of the fare, there was no one
they lie; good farms, too, say the neigh
bors who have stuck TO the soil, and who
seem to be prosperous.
| This was the situation when the Rev.
George J. Newton was called to the pulpit
, Of the Sound Avenue Congregational Church,
| which lies between Riverhead and Aque-
bogue. 1t Is the most prosperous part
Of the community, new blood and an ex-
! ceptional survival Of the old families having
combined to keep up the farms. No aban-
doned OF waste ground there. Tho dead
farms lie further out on three sides.
Mr., Newton Is an Englishman by birth,
which his congregation didn't know in
the first place, or they'd never have called
him. He kept 1t dark until they liked
him well enough to forget the awful secret
Of his birth. But he saw the abandoned
farms and heard the farmers kicking
about the labor problem, and he bethought
himself OF the English farm laborer, living
under hard conditions. and the underfed,
underpaid English factory hand
1t has already been told in the newspapers
how Mr.. Newton passed the glad tidings
Of good work and good pay on to England.
and how thirty young Britishers came
over in bunch and found work. Thirty
more have arrived since then, and they also
are hard at It, More are to follow. Mr..
Newton intends that they shall work here
as farm laborers until they learn all about
the American soil, and then they are to
strike out either as lessees or as owners
Some have brought along money for the
purpose. Others are to get there by the
long process Of saving and leasing. When
farm york peters out they take up wood
chopping. All winter, wood choppers are
in demand on Long Island, and they do
pretty well II they stick at 1t.
The farmers. at least the old, Revolution
trained lot, weren't for the British help
at first. But just now Long Island farmer
would take on an Apache or a Zulu II he
looked like q good laborer. So, much
against their principles, they tried it. The
British have succeeded.
Wouldn't trade him for two blamed
Polaks and three niggeB." says Dick
Wells Of his new hired man.
"Works like horse and don't ask to get
of even for the circus" says Farmer VIII
Halleck.
Halleck and Wells struck real English
farm hands. who know hayfork
from a rake and snake from a belly
band. Some of the>new laborers, however,
come from the east side Of London They
are willing, but their farming lacks tech |
nique. Such hand was allotted to Farmer
John Bailey. This is how Bailey tells it:
Asked him il he knew anythin' about |
horses, an he pulled the cowliok on his |
forehead the way those fellers do an said, |
NO, SIR SO shows him how to hitch |
up. An next mornin' after he'd ct, about |
3 hull COW an washtub o. coffee, I says |
that he'd better hitch up for ploughin'.
After a while, seems he didn't show I'D, I
l went out to look. There was the mare, |
snortin' an froze In her tracks. Looked all |
right, too, an thought twas jest orn riness,
till I started TO ease her collar. Blamed |
II he hadn't got the collar on wrong side /
up, an the names were stickin' every which |
waJ.