FARMERS' DISABILITIES.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 February 1917, Page 8

FARMERS' DISABILITIES.

To the Edita j Sir,—Some months ago a controversy raged through the correspondence columns of your paper on a certain subject which wan at last sat down upon by your refusing to publish any more articles in connection therewith. " It got absolutely ncusoatiiig and this "shokago of farm-labor' question seems lo bo trending in tile same direction. No one will deny that the despatch of so many of our best to the front lias made us less able to pick and choose whom we employ, but lot us look at the matter benestly. A fanner's life is alwavs busy, but anyone will admit that the season for getting in the hay and oats is "IT." We have just got through it and, though we have sent, a.way as many of ,oiU' boys as our next door districts, I Won't think there is a farmer in the district who can say lie lias lost a forkful through lack of labor. I have helped at several harvests this season, and can honestly say that I never had an cosier time in the hayfield. Besides that we had any number of ladies who would willingly have turned out if one of their number had given them a lead, but "tempora mutanter." We have forgotten the jolly old customs of 25 years. Womenfolk were not born then, so w<> can't blame them for not keeping up the old traditions. But if the shortage of labor is so pronounced, how comes it that the streets of our local market towns are so crowded on Saturdays anil days by farmers, their wives ami families, nine-tenths of whom have 110 actual business to transact but go for the rfiike of a yarn, old custom, picking up a stray bargain'or some equally useful object, our racecourses and * agricultural show grounds ditto, back to the pictures at night, arriving home weli towards the witching hour, with the result that I should not feel inclined to pay out "wliarl'ie's" wages for the 11 or 10 hours' labor they say thov put in per diem. We are told "that' farmers have to sell their herds through inability to pecure labor: in fact, some have done so in our district. I will tell you inexperience. Late last autudm, I advertised for a herd on shares for the coming season (I hear the funny mail remark that people knew me too well to answer the ad. hut I put it in under an assumed name to give it a fair trial) offering as inducements practically unlimited labor for hand-milking and a thorough engineering knowledge for machine milking. I did not get "one single reply. 1 finally had to take on a herd of 25 cows to he operated by five milkeis. Realising that the "old man" might just as well be out of it, I have had three tries to enlist but, so far, have failed. Next time Til see what a few lies; a clean-shaved "dial" and a bottle of hair-dye will accomplish. I understand the clfec-t is marvellous. Anyone can see with blinkers on that I'm setting at "X.J.," Aiangorei; but I -wanthim to understand that 1 am only speaking from the standpoint of m'v own district and I a1.?6 want him (ami others) to look around and compare what is being done in New Zealand with what is being done c-lsewherc; figure cut the number of useless lives (or only partly usefuli that are being lived around him, the number of useless town occupations fostered by the farmers having a surplus of cash through enhanced profits (which surplus, I venture to say will be sorely needed when the "Moratorium Act" becomes null and v-oid) and so on and so forth, fifth and even sixth. Ah. well, the same ground has been ploughed over a«ain and again ami again and I'm afraid will bear little fruit till some very effective fertiliser *i:ch as 'a special brand of bone-dust specially made by Krupp, solo distributing agents, M,-ssrs. Emden, Karlsruhe and Co.. Ltd., is applied to our (casts. It is always pleasanter to agree than to difier with a man and I'm fullv in accord with the last half of N.-L's letter, only more so. What is a watersuler? lam not asking riddles. I have had many years' experience, of the genus, and from what I have s?en a bi<> proportion of them are composed of men who have proved themselves (or worse) at everything they took on, drift to the city, wander down to the wharf (the only place where the police won't niovc_ them on), get offered a casual job, join the Union anil from then on have the power to hold up the whole of 'he country s business. It's a dirty picture of one's fellow man, but is it not true? Well, let us try and evolve a l( uiedy. Try and bring the country's need home to everybody. That has already been done, you will say, but try something mora forcible than the miik and water methods of the past. l)o you remember the awful torturing:-, racking*, quartering and every blood-curd-ling form of torture those who did not! comply with the legal filling in of those precious registration forms were to be put to? What has been done? The ail l .lightermen's strike in Christchurch some years ago, more recent strikes and lawbreakingj unpunished V Remove some of the old-time politicians and get virile, yi.'mg men in their place is one solution. A report is about now that good old -Sir J.F. is going to be boosted into a lob again. \\ bailor? He has done us splendid service in the past, but so has .'in old cattle dog I've got that is still intelligent enough to wag his tail and' lollow me around so far as his dear old blind oyes and other infirmities will allow him, and for whom I have more oflection tha.i I shall probably have for any other dog on this side of Jordan, but I'd be sitting on the milking-,stooi Jill next Christina*, waiting for the cows to come home if I waited for him to bring them homo. 'isiufi' said.-I .mi jtte., , SHAREMILKER. ' I Stratford, February 1(1,