Norwich bulletin., 1921-07-29

ground, dry and raked up. My ne4Enbor thought 1t seemed too bad to leave that second lead of finely cured hay out over two nights and a Sunday. to risk either being dried into chaff or soaked with sudden showers. So he asked his ern- ployed teanster to work over time long enough to save that load.
 The latter briefly but very vIgorous- ly informed him that his days work ended at five o'clock. He'd work 3ust long enough over to haul the load d. ready on the rigging to the barn Then he was goin' home Which he did, lear- ing the hay on the rigging At the barn floor. Later, I saw him in his automo- bile, taking a party out for a pleasure drive. The neighbor finally managed to work the load off alone, and got the re- maining load from the field, the following Wednesday. It was pretty poor stuff, but he allowed it would make bedding.
 People sometimes wonder at the decay of farming in the New England and mid dle states. Farmers, however, d0n't wonder. They may gnash their teeth and they may sometimes use ugly language about it But they don't find any myS- tery in it nothing to wonder at
 Their trouble is almost wholly due e the incompetentcy and the ruinously hfgh cost of the labor procurable. They have to pay as much now for two hours help by man and team as they used to pay for twelve hours help by as good a team and durned sight better man!
 In the old days there was a rixsGTy among farmers and among their hired help. too, to see who could get through having earliest and in the best shape. All concerned took pride in their work and brsgged about their efficiency. The av- craze farm hand that can be hired today | seems to have no pride in his work His only apparent ambition Is to see how badly be can "so'jer" on his job without being kicked off it. He revolts out | right if asked to work ten minutes over time in an emergency, but takes it as his right" if given an hour or q half day "on' to weed his own garden or 20 to the circus. He takes everything which is not out of his reach, and gives just as little as he possibly can
 In other words, he has a thousand times magnffied idea of his own personal and individual rights and privileges. and no apparent conception whatever of | his duties and responsibilities.
 1 Of course, there are exceptions. shining ones which every employing farmer iD l the Reighborhood knows Nor VIII I hesitate for an instant to admit that smne employing farmers are every whit as mean and selfish as tEey can be. There Is something to be said on both stdes of the farm labor question
 But the stubborn fact remains that eastern agriculture is today less eH-
 fective than it was sixty-five years ago. And the cause is in the lesser effective ness of the farm labor attainSSe. l There is all the difference in the world
 between the conditions under which farm
 work must be done and those under which
 shop and factory employees work The farmer is dependent upon the weather.
 for enc thing. to a degree unparalleled fn
 other occupation He must work when
 he can. not when he would like to. He
 may be a convinced believer In the wis
 dom of an eight hour day. But there
 will be many days iE his season when ee
 can't work as much as eight minntss.
 and others when he must work fourteen
 hours or lose the best part of his crop.
 Nature deesn't beIens to the Federa4ssz
 of Labor, nor has she even joined in any
 strike for forty-four hour week. yet
 and she is the farmers boss. Not only
 his boss but his paymaster. She zoe
 where she will. when she will, and as Shs
 will The farmer tags aong bedind
 stopping when she stops and squirting
 when she spurts; working when she'll lei | him and hunting cover when she scowfs |. l taking what Sne sees it to give hin when she sees fit to give it. To apply th. methods and regulations of machine driven shop to an occupation conducted , under farm conditions is as absurd as q , would be to set mouse traps to catch sl ephants.
 7 We can only make hay when the sus l shines. a celestial phenomenon quite be yond our control Sometimes. right II the midst of the hurry of having time . it won't shine for week whereupoz 3 we lay off-' and suck our thumbs. Othel
 days it shines from five a. m to sever
 D. m. On whioa occasions we work a \ our hay every minute the sunshine lasts
 That is. we do if we're farmers and no r mere shirAs.
 I remember one month during my ne ! tive farming when neither l nor my hire, |, helper. hired by the month. could put il ] more than six days work, because O 2 adverse weather conditions. No ded1e
 ton was made in lis monthly pay for tn twenty days when we idied. He was
 good man and fair one. When th
 weather at last turned decent he made n
 objection in words or manner over work
 ing long beyood 'knocking-of'' time. (
 make up for previous delays. But be va
 an exception. Where one follows hS
 course a dozen are like my neighbor>
 tezmster-won't work two minutes ove time even to save a perishable crop.
 And that sort of thing doesn't result n either efficient or profitable farming l | simply will-not-do.
 THE FARMER