Book V. ARRANGEMENT OF LABOR. 735 



ensure success, without judicious arrangement. With it, a farm furnishes an uninter- 

 rupted succession of useful labor during all the seasons of the year ; and the most is 

 made that circumstances will admit of, by regularly employing the laboring persons and ' 

 cattle, at such works as are likely to be the most profitable. Under such a system, it is 

 hardly to be credited how little time is lost, either of the men or horses, in the course 

 of a whole year. This is a great object ; for each horse may be estimated at three 

 shillings per day, and each man at two shillings. Every day, tiierefore, in which a 

 man and horse are unemployed, occasions the loss of at least five shillings to the 

 husbandman. 



4535. ^s the foundation of a proper arrangement, it is necessary to have a plan of the 

 farm, or at least a list of the fields or parcels of land into which it is divided, describ- 

 ing their productive extent, the quality of the soil, the preceding crops, the cultivation 

 given to each, and the species and quantity of manure they have severally received. 

 The future treatment of each field, for a succession of years, may then be resolved on 

 with more probability of success. With the assistance of such a statement, every 

 autumn an arrangement of crops for the ensuing year ought to be made out ; classing 

 the fields or pieces of land, according to the purposes for which they are respectively 

 intended. The number of acres allotted for arable land, meadow, or pasture, will thus be 

 ascertained. It will not then be diflScult to anticipate what number of horses and 

 laborers will be required during the season for the fields in culture, nor the live stock 

 that will be necessary for the pasture land. The works of summer and harvest will 

 likewise be foreseen, and proper hands engaged in due time to perform them, 



4536. A farmer should have constantly in view a judicious rotation of crops, according 

 to the nature and quality of his soil, and should arrange the quantity and succession of 

 labor accordingly. Team labor, when frost and bad weather do not intervene, should 

 be arranged for some months ; and hand labor, for some weeks, according to the season 

 of the year. " A general memorandum list of business to be done," may therefore be 

 useful, that nothing may escape the memory, and that the most requisite work may be 

 brought forward first, if suitable to the state of the weather. In this way, the labor will 

 go on regularly, and without confusion, while by a proper attention, either a distribution 

 of labor, or an occasional consolidation of it, may be applied to every part of the 

 farm. 



4537. As general rules, connected with the arrangement, and the successful manage- 

 ment of a farm, the following are particularly to be recommended. 



4538. The farmer ought to rise early, and see that others do so. In the winter season, 

 breakfast should be taken by candle light, for by this means an hour is gained, which 

 many farmers indolently lose ; though six hours in a week are nearly equal to the 

 working part of a winter day. This is a material object, where a number of servants 

 are employed. It is also particularly necessary for farmers to insist on the punctual 

 performance of their orders. 



4539. The whole farm should be regularly inspected, and not only every field examined, 

 but every beast seen, at least once a day, either by the occupier, or by some intelligent 

 servant. 



4540. In a considerable farm, it is of the utmost consequence to have servants 

 specialty appropriated for each of the most important departments of labor ; for there is 

 often a great loss of time, where persons are frequently changing their employments. 

 Besides, where the division of labor is introduced, work is executed not only more 

 expeditiously, but also much better, in consequence of the same hands being constantly 

 employed in one particular department. For that purpose, the ploughmen ought never 

 to be employed in manual labor, but regularly kept at work with their horses, when the 

 weather will admit of it. 



4541. To arrange the operatio?i of ploughing, according to the soils cultivated, is an 

 object of essential importance. On many farms there are fields, which are soon ren- 

 dered unfit to be ploughed, either by much rain, or by severe drought. In such cases, 

 the prudent farmer, before the wet season commences, should plough such land as is in 

 the greatest danger of being injured by too much wet ; and before the dry period of the 

 year sets in, he should till such land as is in the greatest danger of being rendered unfit 

 for ploughing by too much drought. The season between seed time and winter may be 

 well occupied in ploughing soils intended to be sown with beans, oats, barley, and 

 other spring crops, by means of the grubber (2533.). On farms where these rules are 

 attended to, there is always some land in a proper condition to be ploughed ; and there 

 is never any necessity, either for delaying the work, or performing it improperly. 



4542. Every means should be thought of to diminish labor, or to increase its power. 

 For instance, by proper arrangement, five horses may do as much labor as six perform, 

 according to the usual mode of employing them. One horse may be employed in cart- 

 ing turnips during winter, or in other necessary farm work at other seasons, without the 

 necessity of reducing the number of ploughs. When driving dung from the farm-yard. 



