Year: 1867

One of the bad things about farming
is the want of intelligent, trusty and
reliable help. The farmers of New
York are annually throwing away large
sums of money upon laborers, not one
in ten of whom eau do the ordinary
work of the farm, except under careful
and minute supervision. We have Ia
borers who demand and are paid enor-
nous wages that cannot handle an axe,
a plOw, or do any farm work skillfully.
Many of them do not understand the
care of stock, nor even how to harness
or use team properly. They may be
willing to work, but cannot set them
selves about it. They have no economy.
They are constantly breaking and de-
stroying every class of tools and I'M
plements put into their hands, no., per-
haps, from any wilful intention, but
from ignorance in handling or
from sheer thOughtlessness. We
hire laborers with plenty of mus
Gle, but with a limited supply of
brains. These last are cultivated in
solving the problem as to how much
money can be taken ont of the farmer
by the greatest amount of shirking. Ii
has come TO he understood thaJ the
farmer must be ever present with his
wo' kinen, leading them III the field, or
he cannot farm TO the best advantage.
Fifteen years ago native born laborcrs
could be hired who knew how work
shonld he performed, who could be sent
TO the woods To cut and haul timber, or
to pillow, to SOW, to reap, tn bnild fences,
and it would he dCne III the best man
ncr. He who now sends "his man" t.
do such jobs, will he likely to find the
manner of the work, time lost, and the
the cost of Dreakages an expensive mat
ter. Were it not for improved farm ma
chinery, the majority of farmers would
find farming Il very unremunerative
business. Our laborers are for the most
part foreign born, have always worked
abroad under superintendent. and
find it o task to exercise thought on
their own account. What we have
said above will not apply to all, it is
true, but it does to many, and perhaps
the majority of this class. The great
want in American farming to-day is
skillful laborers. Men who will assume
some care and responsibility; men who
will think little, if not deeply. A
friend remarked to us recently, that of
Irish laborers ne preferred new hands
lust over, to those who had been long
in this country. because the old hands
were less willing to learn, were less
careful. less attentive to business, and
were in every way less reliable.


We are sorry to see so many farmers,
sons leaving the farm and accepting
some inferior place in city or village,
under the impression that farm work is
low business, fit only for an ignorant
and low class of laborers, reckless, shift
less and of no care or thought in farm
management and economy.


In England, Scotland and Ireland.
there are large number OF young men,
farmers sons. brought up to understand
thoroughly the business of farming in
all its departments. They 60 out as
farm managers, but few of them come to
this country. There is a demand here
for such men. We hear constant in
quiries for farm managers, men who can
take charge of farm, who understand
all its details and are TO be trusted. The
salary offsred is often considerable, but
they are not easily found. Could we
raise farming to profession, and iu-
duce our yong men to engage in it,
studying it as science, great advant-
age would result to them and the coun-
try at large. We have an example of
this in Prussia. Prussia has recently
startled the world by springing to the
first rank among the continental pow
ers of Europe. In counting upon the
aggrandizement of Prussia, the States
she has annexed, and the number of
men she can put under arms, people
forget the real force and true grandeur
of the nation. Taking advantage
of an uninterrupted peace of fifty years,
Prussia has developed her agriculture,
drained her marshes, brought vast
tracts of unfertile land under cultiva-
ton, provoked by sound legislation the
increase of landed propristors, created
schools in every village, and rendered
attendance to them compulsory; raised
the level of instruction in the rural dis
tricts; organized complete system of
agricultural training, which extends
from the village school TO scientific ac-
quiremeuts. By these measures she has
raised the agricultural profession, hon
ored manual labor, and attracted i.ie
the ranks of simple farmers the children
of the best families.-Utiod Herald.