312 NORFOLK SOCIETY. 



might, however, be fully substantiated, Ave think, by well 

 known facts. 



We suppose that in one of the smallest towns in the county 

 of Norfolk, there may be fifty farms, upon each of which is 

 employed labor, in one form or another, equivalent, on an aver- 

 age, to the labor of one hired man for six months in the year. 

 We estimate the cost of such labor, including board and wages, 

 at twenty dollars per month. That will be to each farm, a cost 

 of one hundred and twenty dollars per annum, or of six thou- 

 sand dollars per annum to the whole number of farms in that 

 town. We suppose the average time of labor, on these farms, 

 to be ten hours per day, and the actual reduction of that time, 

 by reason of heedless indolence, or of irregularity of labor, to 

 be equal to one hour per day. This will amount to a loss of 

 six hundred dollars per annum, to the whole number of farms 

 in the town. To this we should add the loss to many farmers, 

 which as surely results from incapacity, want of skill, or un- 

 faithfulness in the help he employs ; and also the further loss, 

 by want of care in the handling, or keeping of agricultural 

 implements ; by inattention to the proper feeding, cleanliness 

 and comfort of animals, and by the wanton abuse of working 

 cattle. These losses united, we should estimate, upon a some- 

 what narrow calculation, to be not less than an average of ten 

 per cent, on the whole expense of the labor hired upon the 

 farm ; or of six hundred dollars for the whole number of farms 

 in the town we have imagined. Here, then", you have a direct 

 pecuniary loss, annually, of twelve hundred dollars in a single 

 small town in this county. 



Nor have we mentioned all the probable causes of loss to the 

 farmer, m such circumstances. There, is also, to be considered, 

 the great loss of time and labor, by impi'oper indulgence of the 

 appetite, and by that dreamy, restless and discontented habit of 

 mind, so common amongst those laborers, whose chief interest 

 in their employment is the wages it will bring to them, without 

 the slightest regard to any obligation to their employer, or to 

 any effect, which their present faithfulness or unfaithfulness 

 may have upon their own reputation and future success. 



It is obvious that the estimate we have made, would be far 



