Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1918-04-22
1AEY usEp 10 USE us.

school boy that the certain farmer:
minimize or pooh pooh" his service
or is it more the farmer than the
school boy? Perhaps each would have
his point of view and perhaps bott
would be justified in his criticism OF
the other.
! They the former of forty odd years
ago used to use US who were schoo
boys then. Lively recollection assures
US too that he used to get an equa
service for the price he paid us. II
there is a man fftyodd years old who
didn't set an experience on the farm ir
those days he must have had a rich
and foolish father; for most Of our
folks figured that little stretch on the
| farm wouldn't hurt us and some OF
them were urgent and insistent in their
views.
| 1t was new thing for boy who had
never done any farm work to hire out
! by the month thru the summer or by
the day thru spring work OF harvest
or cornhusking. 1t was as great ar
adventure to him as it would have been
to the farmer who hired him had he
left his Illinois or Iowa farm and taken
! a hand at dry farming or irrigation il
the arid belt.f He simply had to have
time Of adjustment.
Then, in the spring, blowing was done
usually with a pair of bow necked
| horses OF light type and a fourteen
inch pillow Naturally it took day or
! two for the boy TO get the knack OF
| cutting all the pillow would take and
tough job too for a soft muscled boy
! to swing the pillow out at the corners
! b. ccaia strength; ard a~!,ssSa -dacsS and
start it in so as to keep a clean square
corner. And the days were long as
! years at first and naturally the kid
longed for the feshpots of mothers
kitchen and the bail game in Crarys
pasture as his shoes filed up with soft
dirt from the furrow and his feet grew
sore and heavy and his legs felt like
| wooden ones.
But usually the kid stuck it out. It
he had the right kind of a man to work
| for and got little encoura cement and
a lift here and word of advice there
and If the family seemed to like him
first thing he knew he turned a straight
furrow and looked after his horses's
shoulders and began to take pride In
his skill and knowledge. \ few days
made him helpful and many farmer
in those old days got mans work out
of kid in spring blowing and over
would have had from a man at a dol
lar
And in corn blowing. One elderly
person not far away from typewriter
has a lively recollection OF his advent
into a corn field with corn pillow and
the farmer who had hired him. First
he got plain lecture on why, then he
was given an object lesson as to how,
he was given wooden paddle to hang
by thong aobut his wrist and orders
to 20 slow the FIRST time over" stop
ping to uncover carefully any sprout-
ing stalks he might cover by blowing
close to the hill, to stop and pull any
big weeds that the pillow couldn't up
root and offered the information that a
careless hand could pillow under his own
wages and the entire profits OF the
employer. without half trying. Two
hours after the employer pronounced
the youth fit to plow corn for king and
the kid was one of the best corn pillow
ers in the reishhorhood That farmer
used to get results from town boys
OF course there were and no doubt
still are boys who don't amount to any
thing on the farm or anywhere else for
the matter OF that winners, cutters
and essentially lazy. But they are the
exception and not the rule. Handled
right the average boy will stick. Blu.
! it is an adventure this first dash into
wage earning and into the qu!ctude
and long days Of the farm. But nine
regard and fidelity and excellent serv-
ice out Of a boy. Two weeks should
make a mighty helpful person around
the place out OF high school youth If
| the youth has anything in him as al
most every one of them has and the
employer has tact and consideration
| Why it takes three weeks for a man
past u to find himself at cantonment
and begin to sec why he is there. He
has to adjust himself to his great ad
venture. SO must the boy have time
for adjustment to his adventure.
| The old time farmer used to use us
in spring and summer, in harvest and
stacking and cornhusking. He man
aged to get along with us for the first
breaking in and then he used to get hit
moneys worth. Some of them go'
more And he laid foundation fol
future help when he made a farm
hand of a lad and a friend at the same
time. When he was squeezed by los
ing his month hand at critical time
he knew where to come. And he usual.
lly got what he come for.
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