INTEODUCTION. 19 



Did such reasoning hold good, there would be a loss of time by- 

 sending four hands. Suppose, for instance, the work is so far 

 distant as to occupy ten minutes in going to it and ten minutes in 

 returning. Now one laborer will go and do the job in two hours 

 and twenty minutes, or in one hundred and forty minutes, when 

 he will be ready for another job. But if four men are employed, 

 each one consumes twenty minutes in going to and returning from 

 the job, which will consume one hundred and ten minutes, pro 

 viding they perform the job in thirty minutes. With good faith 

 ful laborers, those who will work faithfully when alone, there is 

 almost always a loss of time, in proportion to the number em 

 ployed. There will be some waiting, one for another, which 

 cannot conveniently be avoided. And more than all, when a lot 

 of men work together, it often seems at first sight that they are 

 driving the job with great rapidity, when, if the labor performed 

 were divided up into plots, so that each could see exactly how 

 much he had accomplished, they would all be ashamed that they 

 had done so little. But it is much the wisest policy, many times, 

 to have a lot of hands work together, because some men do not 

 like to work alone, and they cannot work alone ; and if set to 

 work alone, they cannot work, and they will not try. This is a 

 weakness not uncommon to many pretty active men. They need 

 the little stimulus of example; and many times, men who are 

 good for nothing when alone will accomplish a large day's work 

 if they can have only the company of another individual, whether 

 he is an associate laborer or not. On this point the tyro must 

 exercise all possible acumen; and if it is his misfortune to have 

 in his employ a laborer not unlike the one just alluded to, he 

 should have every plan wisely laid beforehand, so that when his 

 workmen have finished one job, he will be ready to give orders, 

 with promptness, who shall go to this piece of work, and who 

 shall do that. There will be time enough consumed in going to 

 and returning from labor on a large farm, when the plans are ever 

 so well laid ; but unless some forethought is exercised little will be 

 accomplished. 



It is no uncommon occurrence on some farms to see two men 



