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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



he miglit safely affirm that auy man might get one-third 

 more work doue by the piece than by the day. He would 

 add that some of the most valuable imiirovements in ma- 

 nufacturing had sprung from the suggestions of men em- 

 ployed by the piece, who were anxious to ficilitate the opera- 

 tions in which they were engaged. (Hear, hear.) He quite 

 aTeed with cne or two previous speakers that rather more 

 trouble of a certain kind was involved iu letting work by 

 the piece than in letting it by the day. But th b was only in 

 the inauguration of the system; when it became general, 

 piece-work was attended with less trouble to the employer 

 thi^n day-work. He could easily understand a master's 

 shirking the trouble of having, every now and then, to set 

 labourera to work on a fresh job, and regulate the price of the 

 work each time, especially in districts where piece-work was 

 not the rule. But after a time the difficulty would be re- 

 moved by practice. His experience with. regard to labourera 

 was that they were not half so good judges as to what amount 

 could be done as masters. He had himself paid 25 percent.more 

 for work than it was worth at the commencement ; but, like 

 Mr. Coleman, he had found that there was a sliding-scale 

 which almost always slid in the right direction. (Laughter). 

 Some men objected to piece-work on the ground that they 

 could not get their work well done by that means. The result 

 of his own experience, extending over some years with some 

 hundreds of men, was that there was less trouble in getting 

 work done well by the piece than in getting it done by the 

 day. (Hear, hear.) He had generally found that where men 

 worked by the day there was often an indolence and indif- 

 ference which it was difficult to overcome ; while, on the 

 other hand, the energies and intelligence of the labourer were 

 called out by piece-work, and if the work were not done pro- 

 perly the employer could refuse to pay. Living in au agricul- 

 tural district, he cauld warrant for the fact that a great many 

 of the best agricultural labourers leave farming operations for 

 more profitable spheres of labour ; and if, through a more 

 general adoption of the system of piece-work and a more 

 general employment of expensive machinery, such persona 

 could obtain more remunerative employment, the temptation 

 to leave the work of the farm would be removed. (Hear, 

 hear.) Some object to piece-work on the ground that when 

 labourers have once been accustomed to task work, earning 

 good wages, they make but indifferent day-work men. He 

 must say that this corresponded very much with his own 

 experience. There was one point which must not be 

 overlooked. A great deal had been said about the la- 

 bourers being enabled to earn more money by piece- 

 work. But it should be remembered that that extra money 

 did not all go into the labourer's pocket. If a man did 

 twice or one-third more work than he did previously, it coat 

 more to maintain him (Hear, hear), and although the farmer 

 might be benefited by having the work of ten men done by 

 eight, the additional earnings were not all clear profit to those 

 employed. Having now had considerable experience both of 

 day and of piece-work, he had come to the conclusion that 

 wherever it was practicable it was best for both master and 

 men that the work should be done by piece. 



Mr. S. Sidney (Kensington) said, that without the direct 

 appeal of the chairman, he should not have addressed the 

 Club on a subject so eminently practical, and which has, as 

 regarded the comparative value of day and piece-work, been 

 exhausted iu Mr. Howard's able paper. That paper, and all 

 that he had heard from the speakers who followed, confirmed 

 the impressions he had gathered in recent visits to four 

 counties— differing very much in character, but all very low 

 in the social scale, as shown in the condition of their labourers 



twenty years ago. He found by the evidence on which he 

 could rely, that in Kent, in Wiltshire, in Gloucestershire, 

 and in Bedfordshire the agricultural labourers had improved 

 and were improving in their social condition and their moral 

 character, and this improvement was of the greatest possible 

 importance to the employers of labour. There were influences 

 and attractions constantly at work in these railroad days, 

 drawing the agricultural labourer to the town, the factory, 

 and the railway. The good implements, the steam machinery, 

 now daily coming into more common uae, required good men 

 to work them, and good men could only be retained 

 in agricultural employment, by affording wages and comforts 

 which would satisfy good men. Pace was the distinguishing 

 character of modern agricultural operations, and pace required 

 intelligence. When oxen drew the plough, ploughmen 

 crawled at the ox's pace. Good pairs of horses made them 

 move quicker, and steam cultivation quicker still. At the 

 great meeting in Edinburgh, on the question of labour, an 

 opinion was expressed that Scotch labourers had deteriorated 

 —certainly not improved. If that were so, it must be because 

 the condilion of the Scotch labourer had not kept pace with 

 the temptatious offered by cheap conveyance and high wages 

 elsewhere. He (Mr. Sidney) believed that the English la- 

 bourers' condition and quality had both been decidedly im- 

 proved, and must continue to be improved, if the farmers 

 meant to thrive. Good food and good cottages, which meant 

 good wages, could alone retain and maintain labourers fit to 

 carry out the best modern system of cultivation. Mr. Frere 

 had expressed a hope that all Mr. Howard's correspondence 

 would be published. He (Mr. Sidney) begged to inform him 

 that it was not the habit of the Central Farmers' Club to 

 bury valuable information, or even to defer its publication 

 until it was quite stale. Their discussions were open to the 

 press, and published in full in the Club's transactions ; and it 

 might be interesting to the Royal Agricultural Society's 

 Council to know that the Club had flourished in proportion 

 as its transactions had been made public. 



The Chairman said: Before Mr. Howard replied to any 

 of the remarks arising out of his excellent paper, he wished 

 to mention one little practical point : it was, that when papers 

 were submitted which would be published and circulated 

 among large numbers of occupiers of the soil, it was desirable 

 that if a particular practice or system were advocated in them 

 it should be stated what quality of soil was referred to. (Hear 

 hear). In Mr. Howard's introduction, for example, allusion 

 was made to Mr. Pike's practice of cutting his stubbles very 

 close ; whereas he (the Chairman) had no hesitation in saying 

 that in some soils and some districts it was more beneficial not 

 to cut stubbles very close. He knew from his own experience 

 and the experience of others that on some soils, where stubble 

 was grown to a large bulk, and, bearing in mind, 6 to 8 inches 

 just above the ground, the quality for fodder was so very in- 

 ferior, that it was better management to plough it in than 

 incur the expense of carting it off. When, therefore, a parti- 

 cular system or pi actice was mentioned, the character of the 

 soil should also be mentioned. He agreed with others who 

 had spoken, that there was a great improvement in the treat- 

 ment of the labouring population, and he hoped the improve- 

 ment would continue. 



Mr. Howard then replied. There was very little for him 

 to say, as most of the speakers agreed with what he had ad- 

 vanced. With respect to a remark of Mr. Coleman's, he con- 

 tended that there was much leas supervision required for piece- 

 work than for day-work. When there was a proper under- 

 standing between masters and men, and when the former were 

 determined that their work should be done properly, and the 



