[30] Rates of operation are calculated from the tables given on pp. 166-169 of Bulletin No. 232 of the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The channelers cut the channels in the outsoles of McKay and turn shoes and in the insoles of welt shoes, so that the seams may be buried in the leather. The channeler holds the shoe to the machine and guides the sole so that all but the heel is channeled.
The vamp cutter cuts out the vamp—the lower and most important part of the upper. It must be cut out of the best leather and be free from defects or flaws. Accordingly, the cutter must lay the pattern or die on the side of leather so as to avoid any imperfections in the hide. If he is a hand cutter, he draws a keen-edged knife closely around the outer edge of the pattern and thus cuts out the vamp. If he is a machine cutter, he brings the arm of the cutting or dinking machine down on the die, which cuts out the vamp. The vamp cutter must judge quickly and accurately as to the quality of the leather and how to place the pattern or die, so as to obtain the greatest number of good parts from a side of leather.
The machine puller-over receives the assembled upper part of the shoe on the last. The insole, counter, and toe box are in place, but the edges of the upper have not been drawn over the insole and fastened. This is the operation that he must perform. He must watch that the upper is properly centered on the last, and that the machine pincers pull the leather in evenly over the last, and if not even, he must make adjustments by means of levers until it is even. Then he presses a foot lever that causes the machine to tack the upper to the insole at various points.
The bed-machine operator is also known as the toe and heel laster. He usually works on welt shoes. He lasts the upper in around the toe so that the leather is smooth on the outside. His machine draws a series of wipers or friction pullers over the edge of the upper until the toe conforms smoothly to the last. He then tacks and wires the edges at the toe so that they will be held temporarily until they can be sewed by the welter. He performs a similar process with the heel, but he tacks the edges of the upper to the heel permanently. Both the heel and toe are tacked down permanently in a McKay shoe. The bed-machine operator handles on the average nearly a shoe every minute during the day’s work.
The hand-method lasting-machine operator usually works on a McKay-made shoe. The upper has already been tacked on the insole by the puller-over, but is now drawn around the last and insole, a part at a time, by means of pincers on the machine. As each part is drawn evenly and closely to the last and insole, a tack is driven into the insole and clinched by means of a metal plate on the bottom of the last. This process is carried on around the entire insole of the shoe. This work is similar to a combination of the processes performed by the side laster and bed-machine operator on welt shoes.
The work of the hand puller-over is to put the counter and toe box in place and pull the lower edge of the upper over the last and insole so that the upper is in the proper position on the last. He does a combination of the work of the assembler for the pulling-over machine and of the machine puller-over.
The turn laster lasts the turn shoe either by hand or machine, and in a manner similar to the methods by which a welt shoe is lasted, except that the parts are placed so that when the shoe is turned, they will be in their proper position. For instance, the counter is placed on the outside of the upper, but inside the lining. The lining at the heel is not lasted, but is cut off and turned back. The shoe is then sewed by the turn sewer. The turn laster now pulls the lasts and turns the shoe right side out. He fills the depressions in the central fore part of the shoe and the shank by inserting fillers coated on the under side with glue. He then returns the lasts to the shoes, reversing the right for the left—since the shoes have been turned—and pounds the shoe until it has the proper shape and is entirely smooth.
The side laster, by means of hand pincers, draws the upper leather to the last at the outside and instep and over the insole, so that it is tight and no wrinkles are left. He then fastens the edge with tacks. He does this at the rate of about a pair of shoes to the minute.[31]
[31] Rates of operation are calculated from the tables given on pp. 166-169 of Bulletin No. 232 of the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The heeler takes the shoe and a heel already built up but lacking the top lift, and places the shoes on a metal last or jack. He sets the heel in place and presses a foot lever that causes his machine to drive the nails into the heel and clinch them in the insole. The nails on the outside of the heel are left protruding to a height of about half the thickness of the top lift. On these nails, he sets the top lift, which has received a coating of cement, and the machine presses this down over the projecting nails. He must be skillful enough to perform this operation accurately at the rate of over 100 pairs of shoes per hour.[32]
[32] Rates of operation are calculated from the tables given on pp. 166-169 of Bulletin No. 232 of the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The edge setter holds the sole to a machine which polishes the edge by means of a series of hot vibrating irons which fit the edge of the sole. He must handle shoes at the rate of about a pair every minute during the working day.[33]
[33] Rates of operation are calculated from the tables given on pp. 166-169 of Bulletin No. 232 of the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In shoe repairing to-day we find all stages of development, from the purely hand methods to the factory methods. The shops that use the old hand methods are usually small and the owner is generally the only worker, although a few shops have two or three workmen. The shops that use machinery extensively are larger and frequently employ a number of workmen. Between the two extremes are shops of varying equipment and size. This variation of conditions makes it possible for a disabled man to fit into this business by taking a training and choosing the machines and methods adapted to his disabilities. Some man in a shop that uses machines must have considerable mechanical ability. In the shop that utilizes hand methods, some one must know much of hand shoemaking—in fact, be able to perform all the processes. In either shop there is opportunity for profit for the man who can make, either by hand or machine or by the two methods combined, an entire shoe for those persons whose feet are deformed or crippled, so that they can not wear factory-made shoes.
The outlay for a shop in any case is not large. The machines are leased as a rule. The number of tools needed for a workman in either the shop that uses hand methods or the shop that utilizes machinery is not large. The principal tools found in any type of shop are hammers, knives, chisels, lasts, pincers, awls, and needles. No great quantity of supplies need be kept on hand. Practically all shops have machines for sewing uppers. Many have the machinery for sewing on soles. These are probably the most frequently used machines. Practically all of the machine repairing is sewing rips and placing on new outsoles. Heels are largely rebuilt by hand, or replaced by new rubber heels put on by hand.
In shoe repairing, there are slack and busy seasons. Slack seasons come in fair weather and busy seasons in bad weather. If certain work can be allowed to accumulate in the busy seasons, the work may be distributed throughout the year, since there are rarely long intervals of unbroken fair weather. The busy shoe repairer has a remunerative business. If he is able to do a high class of work, he can charge accordingly, and can take other work as a sort of “filler” for slack times.
As a rule, the repair shop offers the disabled man better working conditions than the factory. There is not the monotony of the single process. He can adapt his speed of work better to his physical condition, one day with another, in the repair shop than in the factory where he must not delay or check the regular progress of the shoes through the different processes. The disabled man can usually work at several things in the repair shop. For instance, the one-armed man could nail on heels or soles by hand or sew rips in uppers. By means of certain appliances, the man who has lost a hand could do practically any process in the shop. The man who had lost both legs could work on hand work at a shoemaker’s bench. He could nail on rubber heels, or build up run-down heels, make hand patches, and do similar work.
Other articles than shoes are made of leather, but these are usually more simple than shoes, and require less skill in their making. Some of these articles are hand made, and others are machine made. A few of the processes necessitate both technical knowledge and skill, but the number of men employed in such occupations is comparatively small.
In the making of leather itself, few if any of the occupations are suitable for a seriously disabled man, since work in the tannery is usually wet and heavy.
In the leather industry there are, however, a few skilled occupations other than those discussed above. These include expert harness makers and saddlers, harness repairers, trunk and bag workers, and belt men.
The harness maker and saddler must have a thorough knowledge of leathers and of their treatment. He must know how to lay out leather and cut it economically with due regard to the purpose for which it is to be used. For instance, where flexibility is more important than mere thickness or weight, he must select the proper piece. He must be able to adjust and repair the machinery with which he works. As a saddlemaker, he must be able to read blue prints or understand drawings or sketches, and to make patterns or cut the leather according to the specifications.
The harness and saddle repairer must have a general knowledge of both harness and saddle making. He must be able to make the leather parts of the harness or saddle by hand, and be able to sew by hand as well as by machine. He must be able to take care of his machine and make all adjustments and minor repairs. He must understand the various sorts of leather, and how to cut leather economically. He must be skilled in the use of the tools of the trade.
Of the other skilled workers, the belt man must know especially how to cement leather and how to treat it so that water or steam will not affect its use as belting. The trunk and bag workers must have the necessary knowledge of how to cut leather economically, its nature and uses according to grades, and how to sew and shape it for the various articles.
A former porter, who suffered from varicose veins below both knees, and a bricklayer, troubled with rheumatism and lumbago, as the result of exposure, were trained in shoe repairing and are now successfully engaged in that work. A former farm hand, who was afflicted with epilepsy, took a course in shoe repairing and is now employed in a shop at higher wages than he formerly received as a farm hand. A teamster who sustained an injury to his spine, overcame that handicap through a course in shoe repairing, which enabled him to become a partner in a shoe-repairing business. A farm hand, who suffered from pleurisy and pneumonia, a farmer, who had his tonsils injured, and a carpenter, who received a shrapnel wound in the chest, were all enabled to go into business for themselves and make a financial success of it, through a retraining course in shoe repairing. A blacksmith, with diabetes mellitus, took a combined course in shoe and harness repairing and has now a successful business of his own. If you like to handle leather, you will like to make or repair shoes, to make or repair harness, or to make other leather goods. Surely some of these offer you an occupation where retraining will enable you to overcome your handicap, if not afford you advancement.
This monograph was prepared by Dr. Walter J. Quick, Special Agent of the Federal Board for Vocational Education, under direction of Charles H. Winslow, Chief of the Research Division of the Federal Board. Acknowledgment is due to E. H. Thomson, Acting Chief, and Dr. E. V. Wilcox, Agriculturist of the Office of Farm Management, United States Department of Agriculture, for suggestions and data, also to Dr. John Cummings, of the Research Division, for editorial assistance.
General farming is not intensive, but is diversified farming. It is the production of crops of a relatively nonperishable nature which have a wide market, and of the production of live stock and live stock products, in addition, with considerable attention to the production on the farm of food and food supplies for the farm household.
Agriculture as developed in the United States gives employment directly to nearly 15,000,000 persons, who with their families more or less engaged in agricultural work make up a total agricultural population of from fifty to sixty million. But more farmers and better farming are urgently needed now.
Even before the outbreak of the war agricultural production had not kept pace with the increase of our population, and immediately after war was declared men on American farms responded to the call for man power to operate mines, build ships, make ammunition, and carry on the many other urgent war industries. Then the dire need for farm labor manifested itself, and the demand for wheat, corn, meats, sugar, fruits, cotton, and numerous other agricultural products increased. This demand will not diminish, now that the war is over. On the contrary, the world is looking to the agricultural production of the United States to alleviate the suffering which exists in the devastated countries of Europe liberated from war without adequate means of immediately resuming agricultural operations.
Our army of agriculturists must be recruited to its full strength, and your enlistment in this army will help to make possible operation of American farms to their full capacity.
Recent statistics show a total of over 800,000,000 acres in farms, of which nearly half are classed as unimproved. A large area is prairie land already clear. But you would be especially interested in the improved farms, located, as many of them are, in the vicinity of your former home, where an interest would be felt in you and encouragement given you on every hand. A large proportion of our farm acreage is unimproved and is not employed even as pasture land. It is a deplorable fact that so many farms are idle or only running partly farmed. But that fact is your opportunity. The Federal Board for Vocational Education will train you for any agricultural line of work you may elect, and farmers, in every State, handicapped by insufficient labor on account of the war, are anxious to render assistance in making you efficient. Your training course may be advantageously finished on the farm, or in the garden or orchard, and may be mutually advantageous to you and to the owner.
There are three factors which should largely influence the choice of your vocational line of training—first, former employment and experience; second, your own desire; and third, the degree of your disability. If your former occupation was in any way connected with agriculture, and you desire to return to it, the third factor, disability, unless very serious, hardly needs consideration.
Even if you were not engaged in agricultural pursuits before the war, you may well ask yourself if it is not wise now to take advantage of this opportunity to enter upon a healthful rural life? The labor is wholesome and will strengthen you physically, constantly decreasing your handicap.
You may not have had the opportunity before, but it is now yours to realize the dream of a contented, independent life in God’s big out-of-doors.
The farm offers many opportunities, so many, in fact, that you can not fail to find suitable employment. Remember that the world is clamoring for food and looking to us to supply the increased demand. You may be inclined at times to be discouraged on account of your disability, but a brave determination is half the battle toward success in any line of agricultural work.
It is with a sincere desire to extend sympathetic helpfulness that you are advised to consider the adoption of some line of agriculture, general farming it may be, for your vocational training. Later you may find some specialty in agriculture which is to your liking and suited to your changed condition. You may be hesitating because of your disability. You can “come back” and will, with a convincing pride that will be admired by your old friends and relatives. Come to the country and you will find your place.
Federal loans are now available on long time, and since the establishment of Farm Loan Banks by the Government, agriculturists have borrowed for use in farming about $140,000,000 in 18 months. Government farm loans can be secured for improvements and equipment as well as for aiding in buying land.
Much is being planned for your encouragement and to assist you in your determination to overcome your physical handicap on the land which you may aspire to own. Even before the war, with no idea of providing for returning soldiers, California had initiated a scheme for enabling men to acquire ownership of land and develop farms by establishing community settlements under State law and direction. In Virginia, notably, and in some other States, under State incorporation laws, community or group settlements in which the farm owners “carry on” co-operatively are proving attractive and successful. The day of small farms and orchards is at hand, and these mean better homes and living conditions, and an occupation in which the whole family may become interested as co-workers.
In no other field of employment can you find such diversification and opportunity for developing side lines as in the broad field of agriculture. Many of these side lines are specialized branches of farming, such as orcharding, small fruit growing, gardening, beekeeping, and poultry raising. These specialties will be considered in separate monographs, but it may be noted that the general farmer may and usually does, engage more or less extensively in several specialties.
The field of agriculture is large and covers many lines of activity. In the different branches wholly different kinds of work must be done, and the work changes from season to season. In general farming, for example, in the spring comes preparation of the land by clearing, plowing, harrowing, disking, rolling, and planting; through the summer, growing crops must be cultivated and given other attention; and in the late summer and fall comes harvesting, which is begun with the fall-planted winter crops by midsummer harvesting of the small grains and hay.
Handling pure-bred stock requires a variety of interesting work. As profitable general farming nearly always includes live-stock production, more or less work is required in this branch. The horsepower of the place must have attention; barns must be kept in order, feed and fodder prepared and sometimes fed out to cattle and sheep in pasture and much care must be given to hogs if brood sows are kept. Other profitable side lines are followed on almost every farm and are frequently specialized, as with pure breeds of cattle, hogs, sheep, goats, rabbits, and hares.
The farm orchard, though it may be for the use only of the owner and his tenants, must be properly handled, pruned, and sprayed. Garden truck, berries, and small fruits must have early and constant attention. In commercial orcharding trees of different varieties are now frequently interplanted, such as apple, peach, and apricot. In the different seasons the fruit grower is occupied with the various employments of pruning, cultivation, spraying, thinning, gathering, storing, and marketing. Summer, fall, and winter varieties may be grown, the latter to be sold as the big crop and stored by the buyer, or by the orchardist himself, to supply the markets through the winter and spring, or even until they compete with next year’s summer apples in the market. Various side lines of labor naturally accompany orcharding, such as growing small fruits and berries, and some farming, possibly trucking, between the rows in young orchards. Bees, poultry, and swine are not only profitable, but help in keeping the ground clear of insects, and in other ways.
Bees not only produce honey, but render service in promoting crop farming through fertilization and by aiding in the control of parasites. Beekeeping is most interesting and exceedingly profitable, and while usually managed as a side line with orcharding, or some other branch of farming, it may be made so profitable and conducted on such a large scale as to be a business in itself. Many retired professional men devote themselves to it, as the work is light and is done only in spring, summer, and fall, when the weather is inviting for outdoor work. One Indiana man is reported as having a $20,000 honey crop this year.
Possibly no occupation has more possible lines of interest and is more adapted to your condition than dairying. The handling, feeding, care, and management of the herd and calf nursery, and in cases of pure-bred herds, the study of pedigrees, blood lines, and breeding are all most interesting, as are also the scientific milking, handling of dairy products, and marketing. The dairy occupation of butter and cheese making, as well as the feeding of live stock for meat, and much other work continue through the entire year. The agriculturist, if a specialist, can conduct a small dairy and can co-ordinate, for example, butter making or other lines with his specialty, thus enabling him to run his “agricultural factory” the year around.
Other branches of farming require active all year employment, and, though too numerous to mention here, attention should be called to forestry, the nursery business, large poultry projects, the growing of rabbits, hares, birds, and pigeons on large scale, and the production of medicinal plants, now receiving so much attention because of the war’s interference with production abroad. All these occupations call for much labor of a frequently changing nature. They are interesting and provide opportunity for selection of employment suited to your disability.
Hauling products to the station or, if near enough, to the market demanding a fresh supply of fruits and green vegetables is one line of work. The truck farmer operating large fields of potatoes, onions, and other crops not requiring placement daily on the market finds a great variety of work to be done and usually carries on one or more side lines. One of the most successful combinations of specialties includes raising poultry, growing small fruits, and keeping bees, but one making a specialty of any one of these branches would unquestionably develop profitable minor lines which would give employment when the main line did not supply it.
Small trades or manufacturing may accompany your farm project, as you will find time for these in rainy weather and in winter. In many localities the broom corn, grown between the rows of early potatoes, or as a regular crop, may be made into brooms on the farm in the winter. Crates, boxes, and barrels for fruit and vegetables are to be made, and buildings, fencing, and gates demand attention. During much of the dormant season of the year, in many sections of the United States, land is most advantageously plowed, prepared, and planted to winter grain and other crops in some sections up until Christmas. Other land is simply broken (not harrowed), to be in readiness for early spring preparation, and in order that it may improve more rapidly under winter rain, sunshine, freezing, and thawing, natural processes which release plant food and kill insect life and fungus development.
To enumerate what workers in the numerous agricultural occupations produce in their varied general farming operations, with rotation of crops, varying in different sections, to enumerate the meat products derived from properly handled live stock, the minor crops of garden, orchard, truck, and berry patches, and the various specialties of horticulture, poultry, and bees, not to mention “specialty farming” products, would fill a book. In fact, the reports and statistical data on agricultural products and their importance to the sustenance and clothing of the population, as well as to industry, fill many books annually. To enumerate these products would be but to remind you of the foods on your tables, of every article of clothing which you wear, and of many raw materials of the world’s industries.
General farming provides work for those of all ages, from the youngest children with their “chores,” up through every member of the family to the farmer himself, who must be general manager for directing his own labor and that of all who are associated with him. There is work for the weak as well as the strong, for the disabled as well as for the fit.
The year around, considering all occupations in agriculture, probably 75 to 90 per cent of the work even in winter is out-of-door work. Very little is done in shops or factories; more is done in dairy buildings and in cheese and butter making factories; there is some indoor work in animal feeding, minor manufacturing, blacksmithing, and making farm repairs, and probably more indoor work might advantageously be undertaken. More shop and repair work, such as is now taken to the town, might be done on the farm. But agricultural work is and must always be largely outdoor work, and it is on that account particularly healthful and enjoyable.
Agriculture in some form is coextensive with the area of the United States. There are the crops suitable for and produced in the North and the South, the East and the West, varying according to the length and warmth of the seasons of growth, and as influenced by soil, climate, rainfall, and adaptability to different plants and operations.
Inventive genius has given us a tool, an implement, or a machine for every purpose in the new agriculture of to-day. America produced nearly 35,000 farm tractors in 1916, 62,742, in 1917, and 58,543 in the first half of 1918, a total of 150,955 in 30 months, yet the demand for them is so great that the Department of Agriculture is seeking a plan for equitably distributing them throughout the States. Better and greater crops are produced by modern methods, and production per man has been greatly increased. This introduction of implements and machinery has made it possible for disabled men to take up many lines of farming with every prospect of success.
If you determine that it shall be so, your disability, whatever it is, will become a serious handicap in farming, as well as in any other employment. But you do not need to make up your mind that way. If you determine that it shall not be a handicap, you can find employment in agriculture, in which you can become 100 per cent efficient.
Your disability is only one condition, and it is probably not the most important condition to be taken into account in making up your mind what branch of farming you can best take up. But considering the disability alone, without taking account of other things, such as, for example, past experience in farming or in other work, certain agricultural employments may be designated as difficult for men with certain disabilities.
Few, if any, disabilities are absolutely disqualifying for any given employment in all cases. Men with all sorts of disabilities have in fact undertaken successfully all sorts of work. It may nevertheless be helpful to designate for each of the principal agricultural employments those disabilities which seem generally to constitute serious handicaps.
With exception of a few disabilities, such as total blindness, loss of both arms at the shoulder, and serious paralysis, it will be found that disabilities do not generally disqualify men for any considerable number of agricultural occupations, and that without exception even of these serious disabilities there is suitable employment in agriculture for every disabled man.
To save space in making up the following table of disabilities, the so-called “disqualifying” rather than the “permissible” disabilities have been designated for each employment. It should be borne in mind that where one or two or a dozen disabilities are designated as “disqualifying” this designation by implication indicates all other disabilities as permissible, and that a list of permissible disabilities would in fact be interminable.
For convenience in making up the table of disqualifying disabilities, a “Key to Disabilities” has been prepared, in which the principal typical disabilities are classified as injuries to the head, body, arms and hands, legs and feet, and miscellaneous disabilities. By reference to the Key each disability is identified by a letter and a number. “A” disabilities, for example, are injuries to the head, and “B” disabilities injuries to the body; “A1” is blindness in one eye, “A2” blindness in both eyes, “B1” abdominal wound, “C1” amputation of one or more fingers, and other symbols are to be interpreted accordingly.
In the chart showing disqualifying disabilities agricultural employments in different branches of farming are listed, and for each employment certain disabilities are designated as disqualifying. In the case of the “general farmer,” for example, the disqualifying disabilities designated are “A2, 5, C9, D9, E12” which by reference to the Key are to be read “blindness in both eyes, deafness in both ears, amputation of both arms at shoulder, amputation of both legs at the hip, and serious paralysis.” As regards other occupations, a similar interpretation is to be given to the chart.
Neither the list of disabilities in the Key nor the list of occupations in the chart is exhaustive, but the lists are perhaps sufficiently detailed to serve as a general guide for the disabled man in choosing one or another branch of farming as most suitable for him.
Because it is necessary. Even if you grow up on a farm, you can learn to farm better than your father and your grandfather farmed. Something new in farming is discovered every day—new methods of treating soils, new methods of growing old crops, and new crops that can be grown profitably on old farms, new methods of planting, cultivating, and harvesting, and a thousand other new things that save labor, time, and money, improve products, secure better markets, and generally make farming profitable. If you have lost a leg or an arm you will need special training to accustom you to work with artificial appliances, and you may find it advantageous, even if you grew up on a farm, to take up some new line with which you are not familiar, some line in which your handicap will not be a handicap. But, especially if you have been disabled and have never farmed before, you will need training to make you a successful farmer in spite of your handicap. The Government will provide just that sort of training you need, and will help you find out what that training should be.
You may be without practical farm experience. Never mind that. Go after it, and with vocational training you will get it.
The most serious disablements, even the loss of two members, even blindness have not prevented efficient application to some of the many agricultural specialties. Some disabled farmers have deemed it unwise to undertake work in the field because of amputation of both legs, or even the loss of one, not realizing that a sabot which will prevent sinking in the ground may be adjusted to an artificial leg, making it possible to travel with comfort over plowed or soft soil. Besides, we now have the tractor, and implements with such light draft as to permit of riding even if using horsepower. You can “come back” at some sort of farm work as many other men have done.
Special tools and implements and certain appliances for the handling of agricultural machinery have been used by disabled men most successfully, and are being suggested by the inventive genius of the disabled themselves. You may benefit thereby in your effort to return to civil life as an efficient and self-supporting man.
You who have grown up on a farm have acquired a practical education that is invaluable. Of course school training and even advanced courses are valuable and will greatly assist you, but it is our desire to impress you with the fact that you can succeed though your schooling has been meager.
Either with or without agricultural experience you will find in the agricultural colleges and high schools opportunity for advanced study. The agricultural colleges report gratifying increase in the application of city-bred boys for courses. If you are a city boy you will have no handicap of undesirable or old-fashioned ways of farming to overcome, which are often difficult to eliminate. Books, specific knowledge, and scientific training rightly applied mean efficiency and success.
Methods of training will of necessity vary with the vocational course adopted. There will be training in various specialties, and opportunity for making yourself proficient in more than one line of work. Following your primary training you will be given opportunity to engage in practical work. After completing your course and returning home, you may continue your training in a local agricultural high school, or in special classes, such as are now being formed in numerous locations. Instructors can always be secured for special classes meeting in the evening or on two or three afternoons each week in the winter time when activities on the farm are at a minimum. These classes and the lectures secured now and then have been the inspiration to many to take regular agricultural courses in high schools or in State colleges, and you may thus arrange to take advanced technical training.
You will be given opportunity to learn the essential things in the line you have chosen, and taught ways and means of overcoming your handicap. The extent of the course as to training and also its duration will depend solely on your needs and desire. The more you undertake the more you will accomplish and the greater will be your efficiency and your ability to go “over the top” as an agriculturist, or as a specialist in some selected line.
The demand for efficient farm labor is second to no other labor requirement in the world, even in ordinary times. You may be assured that the opportunity for permanent employment is excellent. State agricultural colleges can not supply the demand for farm managers, herdsmen, dairymen, orchardmen, and men who have studied the production of small fruits and vegetables and have had practical experience in these lines. The agricultural colleges give special courses in forestry, floriculture, poultry raising, beekeeping, and other lines, and those who have taken even short winter courses easily find employment at advanced wages.
Many disabled men are following agricultural pursuits. Before the war we had examples in hundreds of men with only one arm or one leg who were farming successfully, and reports from Italy, France, England, and Canada inform us that hundreds of disabled boys, retained and readjusted, are now successfully adapting themselves to agricultural work.
Getting back home to work again should be, and doubtless is, your greatest ambition, hence the importance of reaching your decision at the earliest possible moment and applying for the training which will be provided for you.
On arriving at your home you will find the attitude of your old friends, your own family, and your former employers all that you could possibly expect in their desire to assist you. The disposition of your fellow workmen will be to give you every encouragement and to lend a helping hand whenever and as long as you need it. They will take a justifiable pride in you and your determination to be a man among your former fellow men in civil life, and to help produce for the world the food which will prevent in some measure hunger and starvation in the war-afflicted countries, and will provide adequately for our own needs.
In agriculture you will win out in proportion as you develop efficiency. You will be your own master, and will achieve your own advancement. You may reasonably expect to acquire independence for yourself and for your family. The good farmer normally improves his condition from year to year. Only the poor farmer fails, and the way to avoid failure is to take the training that will make you a good farmer.
If, perchance, you have taken insufficient training and desire more instruction after you first try out on the farm, you will be permitted to return for that. If you reach the conclusion that you desire training in another of the many agricultural branches, or in any other line, the Federal Board for Vocational Education has the courses in readiness and will gladly give you further opportunity of re-educating yourself.
The matter of training is up to you, and so also will be your occupation and success in life. You may succeed without training, but you are more likely to do so if you have been retrained and readjusted to the new conditions which will confront you in earning a livelihood. You have been too much a man “over there,” too brave and too ambitious to do your part, to do otherwise now than exhibit by a manly endeavor your ability to come back to the noble position of an efficient, self-supporting, and respected citizen of the United States.
Farming is not a vocation. It is rather a thousand different vocations. No man can in the course of a lifetime engage in all of these different vocations, and no one farm is suitable for the development of every branch of farming.
For the individual farmer operating a given farm the vocational problem is partly one of individual preference on the part of the farmer, but it is largely one of developing to the best advantage the natural and acquired resources of the farm itself, which may be large or small, especially suitable for growing field crops or garden crops, for stock raising or dairying, for orcharding or small-fruit growing, or for some combination of these branches. On some farms the farmer will most profitably become in a greater or less degree a specialist—a corn or cotton planter, a dairyman, a stock breeder, a fruit grower, or a truck gardener. But in other cases his farm may be suitable for general farming. It may embrace a garden, an orchard, pasture land, and cultivated land suitable for field crops. Even in such cases the general farmer will, however, probably select certain specialties among those for which his farm is well adapted. The specialty farmer, on the other hand, will probably develop side lines not necessarily associated with his specialty, producing at least his own vegetables, fruit, poultry, eggs, milk, and butter for home consumption.
The general farmer must know how to care for his animals, how to prepare the soil for his crops, how to plant, cultivate, harvest, and rotate his crops. The specialty farmer must acquire a fund of technical knowledge pertaining to his specialty. For the fullest development of their farms, in accordance with their individual preferences, no two farmers perhaps will require precisely the same sort of training. There is a fund of information relating to breeds and types of animals, feeds, propagation, diseases, pedigrees, and other matters that is of special interest to the stock breeder and of comparatively little interest to the beekeeper. But nearly every farmer should know something of the care of animals, and many farmers who do not propose to become apiarists will wish to know enough of the care of bees to enable them to keep a few hives.
In the following chart the topics of instruction and training of special value in the different branches of agriculture are indicated. In proportion as a farmer engages in one or more of these branches, the training which will be of value to him will be determined by the requirements of the several branches in which he engages. In determining upon a specific course of training in individual cases, past training and experience, personal preferences, capacities and disabilities, and future prospects as regards character and location of farm to be operated and other conditions of future employment will naturally be taken into account.