Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1905-09-04

THE FARMER AND HIS HELP.


an article yet that pleased everybody,
and l think they never will. Some
time ago wrote an article for The
Tribune Farmer, entitled "Good Milk
ing" A few days after it had been
published one of my neighbors
accosted me with: ST don't want you
to write any more such articles for
The Tribune Farmer. Why! l had
just got my men nicely broke in
milking eighteen COWS each when
you butted in." "Wen," said l,
"you just tell 'em I'm fool and don't
know anything" 1 had said, in my
article, that twelve cows should be,
in general, the maximum for one
person to milk, after his days work
in the field. This man possibly be-
lieved my assertions, but did not
think they were practical for him.
His hired man came into my house
a few days after and spied me in my
sanctum. "Hey there!" said he.
"Writin' s'more, be yeh?" ooh, yes"
says I. s'Writin' s'more fer that air
Tribune Farmer?" eyes," answered.
"Well," said he, "I s'pose that las
one wuz purity good, all right, all
right; but l reckon 'twon't dew much
good. They'll all make US milk as
many as we kin. The only way to
git shed of 'em is to quit"
Now, we have seen the different
effects an article will have on indi-
viduals, and this entirely owing to
the circumstances of the individuals.
"What is one mans meat is another
mans poison" But it is the general
principle of right and wrong that
should be considered. Don't think,
brother farmer, because your hired
man works for you from sunrise to
sunset and then milks fifteen or
twenty COWS without "kicking"
that it indicates placidity of mind
If you think SO, the worse for your
stupidity.
The best of hired men are not
kickers; they are men who think
and act. They will not stoop to vain
petitioning or cringing; they are
Americans, and only want what they
are willing to give, a 'square DEAL"
If you will not give proper considera-
ton to the value of such man, he
may surprise you with notice of his
precipitate departure. 1t is much
better to keep a good man contented
than to fill vacancy with miserable
substitute.
I am speaking from experience
experience bitter and wildly real.
I have worked for farmers whole
season who were tolerably good, but
nevertheless, for whom, had it not
been for my financial embarrassment
and the loss incurred in quitting and
seeking other fields, I would not have
worked one week. I worked for one
do 1 remember it? we'll, "reckon,"
who required to drill sixteen hours
per day. For what? Twelve dollars
per month, plus two meals day.
While working in the barn one day a
neighbor of his stopped, and, in the
course of conversation, asked me
how I liked to work for this man and
how much I was to get a month. In
answer to the last question, I said
'sTwelve dollars per month";" laying
some stress on the "per." "That
MEANS" said he, ''perhaps you'll gel
it, and perhaps you will not" hao
already made up my mind to cease
work, but this significant "per-haps'
was clincher. Now, this is not the
only man of this type have known
there are plenty others.
1t is not my intention to cry "fre'
all the way through this article, for
as a class, farmers are the mos
humane employers of their fellow
man we have to-day. 1t is to the few
that 1 address myself. The good
need no admonition, and they will,
think, agree with me in my opinion
When good man has met goof
employer he recognizes it and appre
; ciates him. A good farmland will
not work fer a mean, inconsiderats
employ err; neither will good
| employer need to keep a worthless
assistant. The good farmland cal
: work for whom he wishes, and thu
good employer can employ whom h'
: chooses. So, bear in mind, if yo'
are an undesirable employer, yo1
get no good workman; and if al
undesirable workman, no good EN-
i ployer Exchange.