234 Journal of Agriculture, Victoria. [25 Apkil, 1917. 



Efficiency: The Policy of Speed the Plough. 



Industrial efficiency is the science of getting tlie maximum work 

 accomplished from a given e.xpenditure of energy. It is the art of getting 

 more and better work done in a given time with the same labour. The 

 successful farmer is the man who can make the most of his labour, a 

 certain percentage of which is absorbed in paying working expenses; all 

 over that represents the profit. 



A study of the question has brought to light the fact that definite 

 general laws govern the performance of any set of operations, and that 

 by the application of certain principles suggested by those laws, almost 

 any sort of work can be speeded up. 



Efficiency principles are concerned with four things — 



1. The establishing of what is the standard of work. 



2. The ferreting out of the slowest or limiting operation in any 



series. 



A Contri1)ution to the Sinews of War. 



3. The keeping of accurate records. 



4. An efficiency reward. 



These industrial principles, first developed in America, and then ap- 

 plied with success to great manufactiiring concerns, are worth the 

 attention of agriculturists. They are particularly applicable to the 

 speeding up of any work that consists of the performance of a series 

 of similar operations by hired h^p, such as ploughing, drilling, harvest- 

 ing, &c. 



That there is plenty of room on the average farm for improved 

 business methods no one will deny, so let us for the period of the war, at 

 any rate, speed up and cast overboard obsolete methods, and bring our- 

 selves into line with the great munition factories, where these jirinciples 

 mentioned above are an integral part in the factory routine. 



