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Show HJ O lH INDIANA FARM-HAND WRITES V ABOUT COUNTRY LIFE. 19 An Indiana farmhand has written fifl n letter to President Raoscvcltbout IS the work which the Country Life l Commission is carrying on. The jH President has turned the letter over i to the Country Life Commission and .V the Comtmssion has asked the farm's farm-'s l2.nd to write some more. .Wf "I have been a farmhand just long IB enough," says the President's corrcs-v corrcs-v pondent, "to learn the cause of so M many sons mini daughters and wells' well-s' meaning, reliable farmhands leaving A the beautiful farm and country and going to the -city. A lack of order H and system on the farm and too long hours for a day is what is driving the best minds, from the farm to the city .'B and shop. What can we expect of a B hand, or the farmer's wife and her posterity, in the way of intellectual M development when they get out of JB their beds at 3:30 in the morning and work from that time until 8 or 9 P. M.? And no attention paid to the sanitary conditions of the home, and necessary conveniences on the farm B - for doing the farm work with the least B labor and time." I This man has given the Country fl Life Commission some very intcrcst- ing first-hand information about rural conditions and recommendations based on a long experience in farm work 1 and farm life. He has worked forlf kinds of farmers, good andjjnd, he I says, wnd he has always lirm his eyes I open to detect the causey of their success or failure. ITejlias drawn his "' own conclusionsaifH'scts them forth in down-right, jstraight-forward fashion. fash-ion. Educationpays in farming, he says. The fairer who plans out his wcjrk end- carries it through in a sys-tematjc, sys-tematjc, husiness-like manner, just as IhQ city.maS docs, will be able to shorten the hours of labor. "So many farmers measure everything on the farm from the standpoint of muscle," he continues, "and arc extreme in some things and slack in others. I decided scleral years ago that life is too short to work for Peter Tumbledown Tumble-down farmers." "Now, Mr. President," he writes, "you can take this for what it is worth. I have not given you half of my experience." The Country Life Commission has written him that his suggestions arc so useful that they hope he will send more. "Compel the farmer to be a business man," he says "Go into the homes of some of the farmers and the so-called so-called farmers and ascertain how they live, land learn of their methods of doing the business in which they arc engaged. And you will be surprised what a variety you will find. Ascertain Ascer-tain what they read, and what stress they put on the literature that comes into their homes (if any comes) bearing bear-ing on the business they arc .engaged in. Sec what per cent study their business. "Give me the educated farmer as a boss and the educated farmhand as a hand. When I come in contact with a hand or farmer that studies his business busi-ness I find him advancing, 'and it is a rlcasurc to work for such men. "The majority of the farmers are eight-hour men, that is, eight hours in the forenoon and eight in the afternoon. after-noon. Eight or ten hours on the farm cannot well be adapted in all cases, but it need not be from fourteen to sixteen hours. Iff the family arise every morning at 5 o'clock and the wife and daughters attend to the household duties, and the farmhands and sons attend to the chores and go to the fiehl-at 7 o'clock and work until un-til ii6r 11:30 and go to the field again at 1 and keep at it until 6 o'clock, and go to the house and cat the supper and then do the evening chores, they have done a farm day's work. Regular hours for work, and regular hours for meals, and regular hours for sleep, and regular hours for rest and recreation, with plenty of standard papers and books, including the best agricultural papers and books, and a full faith in God, and good grub is wanted. "The family should rise at 5 o'clock on Sunday morning as well as on week days, and do the necessary Sunday Sun-day morning chores, and then go to church and show the ibusincss man in Mhe city that Sunday on the farm docs not consist in changing the stock from one field to another, or salting it, or unloading a load of hay that was brought in on Saturday evening. "Coming to the meals at the meal hour makes it easy on the wife so she can arrange her household duties in order, as can also the husband his farm work. "Men of worth and standing in the shop and city tell me that if order and system were used on Mic farm they would go back to the farm. If the farmer wants to keep his sons and daughters on the farm he must not lengthen the hours for a day's work at both ends. Limit the hours of work on the farm to twelve or thirteen thir-teen with pay for overtime, and freedom free-dom to the hired man on Sunday." The Country Life Commission welcomes wel-comes letters like this, because as Professor L. H. Bailey, Chairman of the Commission, recently pointed out, one of the investigations of the Conv- mission will be to obtain, as fully as H possible, the opinions of both farm- H crs and of their hands concerning the H question of farm labor and the con- H dition of hired help. It is likely that H when the Country Life Commission H reaches Indiana in the tour of the H country which it will make .early next H month it will endeavor to get into H personal touch with this letter writer. H |