40 FARMING ON FACTORY LINES 



The truth is, the movement to dilute farm labour 

 in this manner was erroneous in conception. It 

 was assumed that labour on the land was unskilled 

 work, which the veriest tyro might be capable of 

 performing with a little training, whereas it is 

 nothing of the sort. There is not, in the whole 

 gamut of human labour, skilled or unskilled, greater 

 dexterity and knowledge required than that possessed 

 by the rural worker. 



Take, for instance, the work of a ploughman. 

 True enough, a novice can guide one of the modern 

 wheel-ploughs, once the implement is " set " and 

 the land " opened out," but the skilled man is 

 required for the " setting of the plough," the 

 " opening out," and the finishing of the ridges. 



KEEPING IMPLEMENTS IN ORDER 



Again, ploughing is, on most farms, only a minor 

 portion of the ploughman's duties. In turn, he 

 must operate, at least, a dozen implements — moulding 

 ploughs, grubbers, cultivators, potato diggers, swathe 

 turners, corn binders, etc. Many of these imple- 

 ments, especially the corn binder, require far more 

 skill than is required for the running and keeping 

 in order of a high grade motor. Not only must a 

 ploughman be able to work the different implements, 

 but he has also to keep them in order and to fix new 

 parts, work which requires a very considerable 

 amount of mechanical skill. 



Then look at the work of a herd or stockman. 

 Any novice can prepare and serve out food to cattle, 

 or milk a dairy cow with practice, but it requires 

 the person of experience, and one often thinks 

 hereditary experience amounting to instinct, to 



