Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1910-10-25
THE MODERN RURAL WORKER
NOT As STEADY OR THRiFrY
As HIS PREDECESSOR.
OLD FASHIONED "HAND"
HAS NOT DISAPPEARED
c. e. Wilson Discovers Several Who
Are Land and Real Estate Own
ers But Are Still Employed by
tho Month-Laros Acreage Of Winter
Wheat Planted in Iowa.

Special to Times Republican.
Iowa Falls, Oct. 25.-At the breakfast
table of a hotel in little town in
northern Iowa the other day the SUBJ
ject of conversation was the price to
be paid corn husking help this season.
The seats were filled largely by young
who happened at the time to be board
Ing at the place. They agreed in all
seriousness that four cents per bushel
was the very least that any one could
afford to accept and some thought it
ought to be five because everything
else is SO high" An outsider sug-
gested that with corn selling at thirty
cents or possibly less and the grower
dividing even with his landlord or even
paying rent on the two-f1fths plan
five cents a bushei for husking would
make a serious inroad on the net pro-
fits. One Of the majority party, how
ever, remarked that the farmer found
1t profitable in the days of eighteen
cent corn to pay two and half cents
for husking and with an advance Of ten
cents in price he surely ought to stand
the proposed price for husking. AS the
quality of this years crop and the fact
that corn stands up we'll this fall had
nothing to do with the matter. 1t was
of no use to carry on the argument and
the outside man devoted the rest Of the
time to finishing his breakfast After
wards, however. in his office he said:
''There was an illustration of the hired
man situation all over the country.
Those boys you saw in the hotel rep
resent distinct class of modern day
farm help. They get out and work a lit
tie while and then come in and loaf
around town and board at the hotels.
They must have big wages, of course
they must, in order to live. Everything
is so high these days.
There are other kinds of farm hands
to be met occasionally than those de-
scribed, however. On one Of the Hamp-
ton mail routes farmer has in his
employ 44-year- man who has
Just finished his twenty-seventh season
as a farm hand. He doesn't change
places every year, he usually stays
three or four years in place He owns
a couple of good eighty acre farms In
Franklin county and has money in the
gives this as the reason why he keeps
on working by the month. Another in
stance of this kind is that OF man
working for a Hardin county farmer at
$40 per month for nine months and
said by his employer to be the cheap
est man he has had for years. He also
owns good quarter of Iowa land free
from circumference and house and lot
in q good town besides. This man has
scarcely any education, in fact is I'M
able to read or write, but at his own
expense is educating nephew at the
college at Ames. and it is said that this
is not the only worthy Individual to
whom he is giving financial assistance.
Every morning he rises at o'clock
and calls on his ''boss'' to "get up and
go to work"
These incidents are given to refute
the statement that there is no such
thing any more as the old fashioned
farm hand. The species is not extinct.
80
One of the local threshermen has
adopted an original idea in the way Of
a post-season scheme Of employment.
He bitches his engine to a road grader
and goes after the big banks of earth
thrown up by the ditching dredge.
When he gets thru, instead of two UNI
slightly ridges Of dirt there Is nothing
Of the kind to be noticed except small
space where there is no grass and by
next fall nature and the farmer will
have attended to that, and one Of the
chief objections to the dredge ditch will
have been overcome.
All over this part of the country
promising looking fields Of fall wheat
are to be noticed and if this is general
all over the state crop next year like
the one of any Of the past three seasons
ought to materially increase the wheat
yield of Iowa. The fields. as they are,
present the appearance of having been
prepared and planted by up-to- date
methods and the little rows made by
the drill used in sowing the seed. are
as attractive to the eye as rows OF
young corn in springtime.
Last year a wealthy farmer moved to
town and left the farm in charge OF
son just beginning work for himself.
The older man secured employment In
the town where he went to live and
works perhaps harder than when he
managed his farm. Here is his reason
for what seems unnecessary to say the
least: II have seen many farmers
leave for a town home and place the
son on the farm. The father under
takes to find the employment necessary
to his health in keeping up repairs and
helping out at times with the farm
work. But for some reason a year or
two generally sees the end Of that ar
rangement and the son moves away
leaving stranger to manage the farm.