WHAT FARMERS HAVE TO REALISE 



diagnose immediately the reason for a bullock being 

 " off its feed," or to " sense " in the stock — no other 

 word will describe it — impending udder, parturition, 

 and other troubles. 



Again, the building of a stack requires as much 

 skill as the building of a house. The same may be 

 said as regards the building of a clamp, or pit, of 

 roots or potatoes, with this difference: it is not so 

 easy to detect faulty work in the clamping as in the 

 erection of the house. Faulty work in the former 

 might easily result in the rotting of the entire clamp, 

 especially potatoes. 



UNSKILLED WORK 



It may be argued that the attempt to dilute farm 

 labour really aimed at supplying labour for the 

 unskilled work on the farm as supplementary to the 

 skilled. In other words, the unskilled work should 

 have been confined to such occupations as root 

 singling, hoeing, manure carting and spreading, and 

 so on. Even these occupations, however, require 

 skill, and far more skill than even a farmer himself 

 need be aware of, until he sees a man or woman 

 with no previous experience attempt such tasks. 



The point, however, which needs emphasis is, in 

 order to use unskilled labour, a far greater pro- 

 portion of skilled to unskilled labour is necessary in 

 the agricultural than in the manufacturing industries. 



LABOUR ON IRISH FARMS 



So far I have dealt with the situation as regards 

 Great Britain. Until quite recently (January, 1917) 



