shall include every person in
the service of another under any contract of hire, except one whose
employment is casual, or is not in the usual course of the trade,
business profession or occupation of his employer.

Farm laborers are outside these acts in some states. Thus, in
Massachusetts "the workmen's compensation act was not intended to
confer its advantages upon farm laborers, or to impose its burdens
upon farmers." But a farmer may adopt it if he desires. And any
contract of insurance made by him under its terms is valid and
enforceable. Such an exemption, however, does not except employees
working for one who is engaged in a commercial or other
non-agricultural enterprise though he be a farmer. Likewise, a farmer
carrying on a market garden may procure insurance covering his drivers
and helpers employed in distributing the produce of his farm without
insuring other employees who are merely farm laborers. The right to
compensation is determined by the character of the labor one is
actually doing when the accident occurs, rather than by the fact that
the employee occasionally does farm labor. Thus, plowing is usually
farm labor, but if it is done to make land ready for building a house
it is not. If a farmer does not avail himself of the act for all of
his employees, he may procure insurance for a limited portion of them.
"If there are those," says Chief Justice Rugg, "separable from others
by classification and definition, whose labor is more exposed and
dangerous, or whom he may desire to protect for any other reason,
there is nothing in the act to prevent him from doing so."

Likewise, domestic servants are excluded by some of these acts, who
are they? "A household servant is one who dwells under the same roof
with the family under circumstances making him a member thereof." And
his status is determined rather by his relation to the family than by
his relation to the service. Thus, a workman who is hired to tend the
furnace, mow the lawn, and do odd jobs about the house, who has a room
therein and eats at the family table, is a household servant. On the
other hand, a chauffeur who is hired by the month to run the
employer's private automobile, but is not living as a member of the
family, is not a household servant. In many cases, however, he is one.
While it is doubtful whether the test of living in the employer's
house is the sole test of household service, it is essential that he
is engaged in rendering se