casually, the work accomplished under two different foremen or 

 owners without being impressed at once with the difference. 



One man keeps all the loose ends gathered up, has something 

 timely for his men to do every moment in the day, keeps his 

 men happy and yet going at a high rate of speed, — in fact, 

 drives his work instead of letting the work drive him. The 

 other man plants his corn three weeks late so that it does not 

 mature in the autumn; does not dig his potatoes in the fall till 

 the ground has frozen enough to spoil a lot of them; puts up 

 his ice in March, and says that farming does not pay. And he 

 can prove it, too ! 



The writer holds no brief to defend the hired man. Doubt- 

 less there are many inefficient men among the class. But so 

 there are among preachers and doctors. Probably as a class 

 hired men are not as progressive as employers, else they would 

 be employers themselves. But doubtless, also, if the tables 

 were turned, and the employers were working for some one 

 else, many of them would loose a trifle of their enthusiasm. 

 Self-interest is a big help in keeping up one's interest in the task 

 in hand. In any case, efficient, modern business management 

 would accomplish wonders if it could be tried out on the 

 average farm. So let us employers shoulder our share of the 

 responsibility and try to improve our methods. If this is 

 sound doctrine, if management can "cut the cost in two," it 

 is certainly worth studying, and the following are some princi- 

 ples which have appealed to the writer in his experience in 

 helping to manage a 400-acre farm during the past ten years. 



1. Know exactly how much work is done each day by each 

 man, and if it is not enough, find out why he did not do more. 

 This is, of course, especially important with new men, because 

 in this way one soon locates the man who, for one reason or 

 another, is not accomplishing as much as he should. But it is 

 a mighty useful practice, even with men who have been on the 

 job for years. There are very few of us who are not helped in 

 our work by knowing that somebody else is keeping an in- 

 terested eye on what we are doing. This is not saying that we 

 are loafers, — most of us are not, • — but we take a pride in 

 doing well, and that pride is increased and our effort stimulated 

 if we know that what we accomplish is known by the boss. 



