Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1908-10-27
COUNTRY LIFE
BY A Farmland

hours for meals. regular hours fol
sleep, for rest and recreation, with
plenty of standard papers anu nunks
including the best agricultural publ
cations, a full faith in God and good
grub are a few of the things needed,
writes an Indiana farmland TO Presi
dent Roosevelt about the work OF the
Country Life commission. Limit the
hours of work on farm to twslve o.
thirteen with pay for Uvectlmc, and
freedom to the hired man on Sunday. .
The president has turnod the letter
over to the commission who are so
well pleased with it that they have
asked for more information from the
farmland of the Hoosier sjasa and
expect whan travelling Ii, 0ush Indi,
ana next month, to get INTO personal
touch with the man who has shed so
much life Oh the work OF the commis-
sion
Loss to Country.
Il have been a farmland Just long
enough" says the presidents cor.
respondent, ITO learn the cause OF so
many sons and daughters and we'll
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 Iona hours
for a day is what is driving the best
minds from the farm to he city and
shop. What can we expect Of a hand,
or the farmers wife and her posterity,
in the way OF intellectual develop
ment when they get CUT of their beds
at $3.50 in the morning and work from
that time until 8 or y. m? And no
attention paid to tina sanitary condi-
tons of the home, and necessary con
veniences on the farm fer doing the
farm work with the least labor and
time"
This man has given the Country
Life commission some very interesting
first-hand information about rural cen
ditions and recommendations based on
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
or failure. He has drawn his own
conclusions and sets them forth in
downright, straightforward fashion.
Education pays in farming he says.
The farmer who plans out 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 con
tinues, and are extreme in some
things and slack in others. | decided
several years ago that life is too short
to work for Peter Tumbledown farm.
ers."
Should Have Method.
Now, Mr., President he writes,
you can take this for what Ii is
worth. l have not given you half OF
my experiences 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 bust
ness 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
or doing the business in which they
are engaged. And you will be sur
prfsed what variety you Will find.
Ascertain what they read, and what
stress they put on the literature that
comes into their homes Of any comes
bearing on the business they are en-.
gagged in. See what per cent study
their business.
Give me the educated farmer as a
boss and the educated farmland as a
hand. When | come in contract with
hand or farmer that studies his bus
mess find him advancing and il is a
pleasure to work for such men.
Need Books and Papers.
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 1T need not be from fourteen TO
sixteen hours. If the family arises
every morning at 5 O'Clock and the
Wife and daughters attend to the
household duties, and the farmhands
and sons attend to the chores and go
TO the field at o'clock and work I'M
til II or 1890 and go to the field
again at and keep at it until 6
the supper and then do the evening
chores, they have done farm days
work. Regular hours for work and
regular hours for meals. and regular
hours for sleep and regular hours for
rest and recreation with plenty of
standard papers and books, including
the best agricultural papers and books
and full faith in God, and good grub
is wanted.
Observe Sunday.
The family should rise al 5 o'clock
on Sunday morning as well as on
week days and do the necessary Sun
day morning chores, and then go 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 sailing 1t, or
unloading load Of hay that was
brought in on Saturday evening.
Coming TO the meals at the meal
hour makes it easy on the Wifi; 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 ordar aud