Economics of the Size of Farms 161 



through as far as possible without interruption. Various stages inter- 

 vene between the opening of the furrows by the drill-plough and the 

 final sowing of the seed. On a large farm with plenty of horses 

 and a well-developed division of labour they can be made to follow 

 at once one upon another, or even carried on side by side : and this 

 is a great technical advantage 1 . Again, for all these crops plentiful 

 and well-applied manure is important : and here again the large 

 farmer, comparatively strong in capital, has the advantage. He can 

 use a manure-spreading machine, which lays the manure evenly and 

 without waste over the fields. Such a machine costs .18 or ^19*, 

 and it would therefore be too expensive for the small holder. Another 

 disadvantage which hampers the small man considerably, both in regard 

 of corn-growing and of green crops, is the unfavourable position in 

 which he stands when buying either seed or chemical manures. The 

 large farmer gets cheaper rates and better goods because he buys on 

 a large scale. The small farmer often has to put up with poor and 

 adulterated goods. 



The many qualities in which the large arable farm is superior to 

 the small are thus evident. The small farmer, on his side, has hardly 

 anything to set against them so long as he remains an arable farmer. 

 No doubt, working himself with his family, he gets his labour cheaper 

 than his rival, as even the occupier of a medium-sized holding does 

 very often. But the saving so made is far from compensating for the 

 large farmer's command of labour-saving machinery. And what is 

 even more important, the labour of the occupier and his family has 

 here no peculiar qualitative value. Corn-growing depends on relatively 

 simple mechanical processes, and makes no special demands on the 

 interest and industry of the labourer. It allows of, and even demands, 

 more than any other branch of agriculture, division of labour as 

 between the manager and the operative, the head and the hand. It 

 can be admirably carried out by wage-labour, supervised and directed 

 by the occupier or by a farm-bailiff. So far as the large farmer does 

 take a personal share in the work, it is, as pointed out above, not for 

 the sake of economising labour, but because it puts him in a better 

 position to direct the work of his employees. In corn-growing the 

 qualitative properties of the work of the owner play a very small part ; 

 and thus the small farmer has nothing to compensate for the various 

 advantages of large scale production in this particular branch of 

 agriculture. 



1 Stephens, op. cit. Vol. II, p. 348. 



2 See the catalogue of the firm of Sergeant, Northampton. 



L. II 



