206 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



ECONOMY OF LABOR. 



A few years ago, while stopping for a season at a town in Northern Ohio, I 

 was pleased to see an admirable example of skill in the management of labor. 

 The foreman of the greenhouses foresaw a frosty night, and was anxious to get 

 in the stock roses before they were nipped. He might have taken his hands 

 and dug them, placing them under cover, to pot off at leisure. But the work 

 had to bo done sometime, and he proposed to make a clean jobof it. Two 

 of his most skillful hands were placed at the potting bench, with earth and 

 pots convenient. Two boys were ready to remove and situate the plants on the 

 greenhouse benches when they were ready. The foreman knew just how many 

 plants could be well potted per hour, and the help out of doors was arranged 

 so that the roses should be dug and delivered so that there should be an ample 

 supply within convenient reach constantly at the bench. He counted the plants 

 and tied the labels, regulating by his watch the amount of the delivery. The 

 day r s work thus accomplished with no friction was, I rememember, something 

 enormous. But the gauging of the labor so that each man did about all he 

 could was to me a delightful example of labor management. When I see men 

 binding after a reaper and so arranged that a part of them have to stand on the 

 corners to wait while the remainder work beyond their limit to keep ahead of 

 the machine ; when I see with a threshing machine too much help upon the 

 straw stack, and too few handing the bundles; when in the apple orchard I see 

 men spending one-third of the time while gathering the crop in getting into 

 and out of the tree to empty baskets or bags, I can not help but wish that 

 among farmers there was the ability to employ help economically that I see in 

 well regulated commercial establishments. 



In years of abundance when the income from a crop barely requites the far- 

 mer for his expenses in raising it, often the whole profit lies in the economical use 

 of his help while harvesting and marketing. It is not the man who can do the 

 most work himself that makes the best farmer, for often such men cannot 

 control or delegate labor with any success. A great step is gained when a man 

 can so control his help as to have no waste motions or moments. Many farmers 

 would do well to take lessons from the foremen in machine shops, and in man- 

 ufacturing establishments. 



Neither is the victory always accorded to the strong. There is a great deal 

 of light work upon the farm that requires skill, rather than strength. The 

 man who can make a good log heap, may not be able to earn his living picking 

 fruit. This matter of acquiring skill at the various occupations upon the farm 

 is of the highest importance. It is not nearly so worthy an achievement for 

 a man to pick up a barrel of apples and throw it over the end board of a 

 wagon as it is to be able to pick thirty barrels, assort and head them in a day. 



It is an acquirement worth having to be able to shoulder alone continuously 

 any number of bags of grain and throw them upon the wagon, but it is worth 

 indefinitely more to be an expert in binding, so as to take up a quarter, 

 or perhaps a third of what a reaper will cut in a day. It is to these acquire- 

 ments that the farmer should look in the management of his labor. There is 

 nothing like the employment of men so as to have each one doing that which 

 he can do best and most quickly, and again in hiring men it is far better to 

 look at skill rather than simply brute strength. S. Q. LENT. 



