Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 August 1878 — Keeping Ahead of Work. [ARTICLE]

Keeping Ahead of Work.

A witty lecturer says that “ some people have three hands.” They have two hands the same as their neighbors, beside which they have always a-little behind-hand. He might well add that this sort of men are wholly disqualified t(VBe farmers, and, if they are such, the three-handed farmers can never become-fore-handed. But, seriously, we have seen enough to prove that keeping ahead of the work from the opening of spring till the last job is finished in the fall, is the only way to farm with either pleasure or profit. The farmer who gets behind at any season works at a serious disadvantage ever after! And it is no easy matter to manage just right to keep abreast of the work. The direction of a large farm demands executive abilities as great as does the management of an army. The farmer has in fact an army; but his men are engaged in the work of production rather than of destruction. To keep two to ten men employed profitably in all kinds of weather, requires thought and tact The difficulty with most farmers is that they do not hire ehough help. They ninderestiruate-the amount of work required, and make too little allowance for rainy days when little or nothing can be done out of doors. Up to harvest time most farmers do pretty well. But unless work is pretty well advanced before haying and harvesting begin, it is pretty sure to be all in a tangle by the time the grain is"in the barn. There are two, three or four weeks when little is usually done except securing the hay and grain crops. Then is the time when weeds run riot in potatoes, corn, beans and other hoed crops. We have often known fields to become so weedy in harvest time that the crops cost more to get out of the weeds than they were worth. Plenty of help at such times is all-important. Keep the cultivator going in the hoed crops though you have to pay harvest wages to do it. One day’s work at the right time is worth five a week or two later. In the harvest field itself extra help is almost equally important. The present season is proving very showery and “catching” in many sections. When we have a really good day for curing hay or grain, there should be plenty of help to take advantage of it. We kuow farmers who at such times fit out an extra wagon and with two teams will keep the barn constantly filling. One or two men, if needed, are stationed in the barn to move away, and an equal number in the field to load. This rapid pushing of work is far the cheapest. Often after one or two days of tine weather we have rains which delaywork in the hay or harvest field for twice that length of time. Meanwhile hay or grain is. spoiling, and at last it costs more'to get it housed in bad condition than it would at first to have it saved in good. Of opurse, the good farmer will have all the labor-saving Implements. This is the great advantage of using mowers and reapers. They will do the work with less men. The farmers, however, should not hire less; but employ tjie time and labor saved in getting the work promptly and therefore more cheaply done. Whoever uses mowers and reapers merely to save hired help gets very little advantage from them. In all probability he will lose as much on other crops, and possibly more than he will save in hired help. We know that prices of farm products are low; but labor is also nearly or quite as cheap as before the war, and considering the improvements in farm machinery, farmers can get more done for ; ten dollars now than they ever could before. The temptation to many farmers Is to save in their help-expense account. But if the farm is worth work-

ing at all It Is surely worth working well, and the larger the amount Judiciously expended for farm labor, the larger will be the profits and the greater the improvement of the farm Itself. Doing with tod little help Alls the soil with weeds, and where these obtain control, all hope of profit is at an end. —Rural New Yorker. One of the women employed at the Albany City Hall, recently, cut the district telegraph wire that runs from the Common Council chamber to the County Court room, close to the wall on both sides, thinking it “not tidy to leave strings hanging around in that way."