236 Journal of Agriculture, Victoria. [25 April, 1917. 



Seeking the Limiting Factor. 



It is obvious to any one that in a series of complementary operations, 

 each one dependent on the other, that the slowest of them determines the 

 speed at which the whole can he accomplished. Translated into agri- 

 cultural language, that is to say, if, in chaffcutting, the pitcher is slow 

 and cannot keep up with the cutter, then the whole operation is delayed ; 

 the fault in the pitcher does not stop with him, but is automatically 

 passed on to and affects the four or five other men as well. Almost 

 every operation in farming is similar, hut the picking out of the " limit- 

 ing factor " or the " lazy pitcher " is not so easy, and, indeed, must 

 sometimes be made the subject of careful study and test. 



If the farmer will remember that on the farm every operation or set 

 of operations is interlocking, and if he looks out for the slowest one in the 

 series, and speeds it up, he will accomplish much towards the easy 

 working and profit-earning capacity of his farm. 



The examples quoted below are well known, hut, looked at from the 

 efficiency point of view, may serve to remind the farmer that in the 

 humdrum press of daily work much of the profit is slipping through his 

 fingers unobserved or, if observed, unchecked. 



Foremost on the list is the care of horses and the making of them 

 up into efficient teams. The horses are the farmer's fighting front, and 

 he must personally supervise the feeding of them. No horse can regu- 

 larly perform hard work if he is rushed into the stable by some lazy 

 farm hand half-an-hour before bell-time. It will pay every farmer 

 with hard work to do to feed oats to his horse. No desirable farm hand 

 will stop long if he has to drive a team of underfed scrubbers. The only 

 man that will stay under those conditions is a second-rater. 



"When there is hard work about, how many teams do we see free from 

 sore shoulders ; a sore shoulder, if not attended to at once, soon puts the 

 horse out of action, and perhaps disorganizes the whole work. When- 

 ever there is a sore shoulder there is a cause, and it is generally the 

 collar ; no amount of attention to the shoulder will avail unless the cause 

 is removed. 



Many farmers habitually work short of full horse strength; rather 

 than buy a horse or two they will get along using smaller implements. 



The more horses one man can work conveniently, the more econo- 

 mically is that man's labour utilized. This year, with the dearth of 

 agricultural labour, it behoves every farmer to subject each farm 

 operation to careful scrutiny, to see if horses, implements, efficiency, 

 cannot make up for the lack of labour. 



The overhauling of implements before the season starts, and the 

 stocking of a reasonable supply of duplicates, may add another acre or 

 two to the area ploughed. The provision of an adequate supply of cliaff 

 before the rush of work commences may mean 10 acres to your area, 

 especially if all hands usually have to stop once a week to cut chaff. 



Wage war on the saffron thistle, the charlock, the imisk, and the wild 

 oat. Wild oats uses up valuable moisture, and takes the place of good 

 wheat. Saffron thistle, musk, and charlock mean loss of time and money 

 at harvest. Last season was a particularly bad one for all these pests, 

 and unless the fallows are well-worked after the weeds have germinated, 

 there may be dirty crops and, consequently, diminished yields. 



