236 ox PEOYIDING A SUFFICIENT SUPPLY OF LABOUPt 



marker to a drill and a half, and in the scratch of which the 

 manure is sown, do the work of two, and allow the others to be 

 engaged in cleaning or other work. The input is not long 

 finished before the first breadth will have oot the rough leaf, and 

 hoeing is begun as soon as practicable, so as to keep in advance 

 rather than allow a loss of growth and increased cost of the 

 work. Where potatoes up to the half of the break are grown, 

 the ordinary hands will suffice, for the weeding can be a little 

 postponed. With good management, continual earthings, saddle 

 harrowings, and furrow grubljings, very little weeding is needed, 

 and even that can be accomplished on days too damp for turnip 

 work. But where the whole break is in turnips — the only suit- 

 able green crop on some soils — it is readily seen that the ordinary 

 hands cannot cope with the hoeing and weeding of 100 acres of 

 turnips. The first hoeing must be through in twenty-eight days,* 

 and not more than 2i acres with hoes, or ?y^ with the hands, can 

 be accomplished in a day, so that aid from some other source 

 becomes imperative. Towns, villages, reformatories, and indus- 

 trial schools are then drawn on as a supplement ; but a few keep 

 house servants, women or boys, for the summer season. Wlien 

 the green crop has received its last turn, and the weeds have 

 been mown on the pastures, usually on wet days, meadow hay is 

 cut and vjin, and there is little interval between it and harvest. 

 The cutting of rye grass hay is not, with few hands and a large 

 breadth of green crop, a desirable practice, for with the two on 

 hand at one time some of the ojierations must be neglected, 

 while grazing in the end is often as profitable. If no hay is cut, 

 then there will be a considerable interval between finishing green 

 crop and harvest, and during it roads are repaired, ditches cleaned, 

 stackyard put in order, and a great many such like operations, 

 only meddled with in such times, are performed. It is needless 

 almost to say that if water-power is not available, steam is the 

 most suitable for thrashing, grinding, &c., and the steading- 

 should be so constructed that there is no loss of labour in 

 moving from one part to another, or for want of good machinery. 

 The carts should get into the barn by a large door, so as to empty 

 the cart by tipping it, and, without being out of doors, the fodder 

 should be conveyed only a short distance to the cattle and horses. 

 The harvest now arrived, three reapers — self-dehvery ones — will 

 be reqmred, two for constant use, the third to replace one requir- 

 ing a temporary repair. The hands allowed will finish harvest 

 in a month of fair weather, and if sheds are erected, a deal can 

 be saved by dispensing with skilled hands. Potato raising fol- 

 lows, and if half the green crop breadth is grown, supplementary 



* The general Itelief is that laoro work can be done with lioes than l\v hand. — 

 Editor. 



