POINTS OF VIEW

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 25, Issue 3757, 18 May 1936, Page 4

POINTS OF VIEW

OPINIONS OF OUR READERS. FARM HANDS. Sir, —Through your columns I would like to correct an impression that is all too prevalent at the present time, and in doing so to call for commer.ft and criticism on the lot of the first-class farm hand and his worth to the community. The impression I speak cf is that the farm hand is a mere labourer even less than a “mere labourer, a person who, unable to find work in other directions, must perforce milk cows, and is often referred ito as Having come down to that. It is probably unknown to the citydweller that so-called cow-spanking is a skilled trade, a trade that, to become expert in all its branches, requires not a four-year apprenticeship, but rather a life-study requiring not only brains but a body inured to hardship by long hours in all-weather conditions, and heavy work. It is interesting to compare the set standard of wages of trades such as plumbing, carpentering, with those of farm Hands, or for that matter the earnings of master plumbers, builders, etc., with the returns gleaned by the master farm hand, that is, the herdowner and landholder. Let me mention a few of the different branches of work it is necessary for the expert fa.m hand—the person every farmer wants —to have ias a working knowledge: Speed and deftness in the cow shed coulped with, quietness with cows, strict cleanliness and a working knowledge of simple veterinary measures, grassland farming, the handling of horses and the use of implements!, manuring, entailing heavy sack lifting, and a knowledge of drills and topdresse,rs; fencing, which is an art in itself; the handling of sheep, clutching, docking, lambing - time duties; these, together with a thousand other, odd jobs, all go to make the hired help, who as a. rule has been brought up on a farm and sticks to farming because it is ip his blood to do so. And yet these men and youths, able and necessary assistants of what is termed “the backbone of the country,” are paid a wage that cannot compare with those of general trade union awards. Why is this? Why is the farmer of to-day not in a position to pay more?—l amt etc., ONE PUZZLED PERSON.