FARM v. FACTORY: THE RURAL EXODUS 49 



throughout the year, and using wherever possible 

 labour-saving and labour-economising machinery. 

 We must use human brains and human hands to 

 direct and control machinery, rather than to expect 

 our rural work to be carried on, as in the past, 

 under conditions that often meant brawn being more 

 valuable than brains. 



THE LABOUR QUESTION SOLVED 



There is only one way in which the labour 

 question, or the problem of the rural exodus, can 

 be satisfactorily settled, and that is by the payment 

 of better wages, wages which will compare favourably 

 with those paid in industrial life. To do this, the 

 writer's contention is that it is necessary to run a 

 farm under the same conditions as far as possible 

 as obtain in industrial life. 



As a matter of fact, the rate of wages paid for 

 an effective day's work on the farm is quite as high 

 as the rate paid in industrial life. For instance, if 

 a farm labourer is only receiving 2/6 per day, his 

 daily wages for effective days is really greater 

 than a dock labourer receiving 5/- per day. The 

 explanation is simple. Often for one effective day — 

 a day that it is possible to carry on field operations 

 — there are several days when both men and horses, 

 through stress of weather, are perforce idle, semi- 

 idle, or engaged on what a farmer calls " filling-up " 

 jobs. 



Under our present system of tillage (repetition is 

 necessary to emphasise the point), the greater the 

 area under cultivation, the greater the percentage of 

 ineffective working days for the staff, horses as well as 

 men. On a grass-growing farm, except at hay-time, 



D 



