BRAIN v. MUSCLE ON THE FARM.

Bruce Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 3025, 6 January 1899, Page 6

BRAIN v. MUSCLE ON THE FARM.

The scarcity of good hands for farm work, particularly at harvest time, is always the subject of comment. No way, however, has been suggested to supply the demand at a fair rate of wages, despite the fact that the cities and towns are filled with able-bodied men, anxious for some means of earning a living. It has to be admitted that these men, willing as many of them undoubtedly are, do not make good farm hands. Twenty years ago, when muscle was the principal requirement for farm work, any man with a broad back and brawny arms, even a runaway sailor, could be utilised on the farm to good advantage. Nowadays it takes skilled labour for farm work, and men who do not understand the work are next to useless. What we require these daj's is more trained farm hands and few rouseabouts. Look at the groups of idle men and bo} r s that loaf about the street corners of our towns and cities. These men represent so much idle capital. The most of them are bright enough and quick enough to learn, and would in time make good farm-labourers, if they could be caught and wooed away from the shiftlessness and idleness of the cities. How to induce these men to become producers is the problem that needs solving.