GIVING UP CROPPING.

Waipa Post, Volume II, Issue 86, 16 February 1912, Page 4

GIVING UP CROPPING.

WORRY AND ANXIETY TOO MUCH. A well - known Southland fanner recently informed a reporter that he intended giving up cropping 6q account of the worry and anxiety that were associated with the working of teams. A four-horse team cost £3OO per year to work, that is taking into account the necessary labour and the feed consumed. The labour problem, too, was a serious one, and it was becoming more ancl more difficult each year to obtain suitable men. He paid his men 30s per week, provided them with good accommodation, and did not .deduct anything for holidays, which he by no means begrudged the men. He also allowed each of them to keep a hack, and he never charged them a penny for feed. Despite all this he found the position becoming intolerable, and he had to be constantly endeavouring to smooth over friction and difficulties created by the men themselves. Most farm implements have a seat now attached to them; but if a man is workiug an implement without a seat for a day longer than he thinks he has the right to, there is trouble, and the,employer is blamed for favouring one man at the expense of the other fellow. Similar bother frequently arose over the allotting of teams. One man will complain that he is not being given as good a team as the others, and if steps are not immediately taken to pacify the aggrieved one, the chances are that he will at once "take his hook " and leave his employer in the lurch. Altogether, the farmer spoken to was not enamoured of the position, and as soon as he conveniently could, he said, he would transfer his attention to sheep.