Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1908-10-30
Indiana Farmland Writes about
Country Lite.

which the Country Life, Commission
is carrying on. The President has
turned the letter over to the Country
Life Commission and the Commission
has asked the farmland to write
some more.
81 have been farmland just long
enough" says the Presidents CORE
spondent, "to learn the cause OF SO
many sons and daughters and well.
meaning, reliable farmhands leaving
the beautiful farm and country and
going to the city. A lack of order and
system on the farm and too long
hours for day is what is driving the
best minds from the farm to the city
and shop. What can we expect of a
hand, or the farmers wife and hel
posterity, in the way Of intellectual
development when they get out Of
their beds at 3:3O in the morning and
work from that time until 8 or p.
M? And no attention paid to the
sanitary conditions of the home, and
necessary conveniences on the farm
for doing the farm work with the
least labor and time.'
This man has given the Country
Life Commission some very interest
ing tirSt-hand information about rural
conditions and recommendations
based on a long experience in farm
work and farm life. He has worked
for all kinds of farmers, good and bad,
he says, and he has always had his
eyes open to detect the causes OF
their success of failure. He has
drawn his own conclusions and sets
them forth in downright, straight
forward fashion. Education pays in
farming, he says The farmer who
plans ont his work and carries it
through in a systematic, business
like manner, just as the city man
does. will be able to shorten the hours
of labor. $50 many farmers measure
everything on the farm from the
standpoint of muscle" he continues,
land are extreme in some things and
slack in others 1 decided several
years ago that life is too short for
Peter Tumbledown farmer"
"Now, Mr.. President," he writes,
"you can take this for what it is
worth. l have not given you half of
my experience" The Country Life
Commission has written him that his
suggestions are so useful that they
hope he will send more.
compel the farmer to be a business
man." he says-"Go into the homes
Of some of the farmers and the So
called farmers and ascertain how they
live, and learn of their methods OF do
ing the business in which they are en-
gagged. And you Will be surprised
what a variety you will find. Ascer-
tain what they read, and what stress
they put on the literature that comes
into their homes Gfany comes) bearing
on the business they are engaged in.
See what per cent study their busi-
ness.
."Give me the educated farmer as a
boss and the educated farmland as a
hand. When l come in contact with
a hand or farmer that studies his bus
iness / find him advancing, and it is a
pleasure to work for such men.
"The majority of the farmers are
eight-hour men, that is, eight hours
in the forenoon and eight in the after
noon. Eight or ten hours on the
farm cannot well be adapted in all
cases, but it need not be from four
teen to sixteen hours. If the family
arise every morning at 5 O'Clock and
the wife and daughters attend to the
household duties, and the farm hands
and sons attend to the chores and go
to the field at o'clock and work un-
til II or 11:3O and 90 to the field again
at and keep at it until O'Clock, and
go to the house and eat the supper
and then do the evening chores, they
have done farm days work. Regu-
lar hours for work, and regular hours
for meals, and regular hours for sleep,
and regular hours for rest and recrea-
tion, with plenty of standard papers
and books, including the best agricul-
tural papers and books, and a full
faith in God, and good grub is want
ed.
"The family should rise at 5 O'Clock
on Sunday morning as we'll as on week
days, and do the necessary Sunday
morning chores. and thengo to church
and show the business man in the
city that Sunday on the farm does
not consist in changing the stock
from one field to another, or salting
it, or unloading a load of hay that
was brought in on Saturday evening.
Coming to the meals at the meal
hour makes it easy on the wife so she
can arrange her household duties in
order, as can also the husband his
farm work.
"Men of worth and standing in the
shop and city tell me that if order
and system were used on the farm
they would 60 back to the farm. If
the farmer wants to keep his sons and
on the farm he must not
lengthen the hours for a days work
at both ends. Limit the hours of
work on the farm to twelve or thir-
teen with pay for overtime, and free
dom to the hired man on Sunday"
The Country Life Commission well