66 TASK-WORK AND SPADE 



two. If a man has got a small job to do, it is 

 much better to finish it off quickly than to 

 hang over it a whole clay. The propriety of all 

 work being done by the task is therefore ob- 

 vious. 



If the whole labour of Irish agriculture could 

 be performed by half the present number of 

 hands, under a proper system of taskwork, then 

 the effect of introducing the system into general 

 practice would accordingly be, to turn half a 

 million of her peasantry out of employment, or 

 the whole only on half-employment. The task- 

 work system, therefore, of itself places us exactly 

 in the same dilemma as that in which we found 

 ourselves launched by the manufacturing scheme; 

 so that before it can become instrumental in 

 effecting the reformation of the Sister Isle, 

 double the present amount of agricultural em- 

 ployment must somehow be found with whic 

 to conjoin it. 



When we commenced task-work, we did not 

 diminish our hands, but, on the contrary, by 

 the introduction of an efficient system of spade 

 husbandry, did more than double their number. 

 The immediate introduction of spade husbandry 

 by landlords and gentlemen farmers into Ireland 



; 



