StlrERttfTENDENCfc. 65 



and can afford to pay for it, provided only the man be made to 

 feel that his employer takes real interest in the results. He 

 TII ust understand that the master both means and expects to 

 make money out of his charges, and then he will probably do 

 as near his best as he is constitutionally capable of ; for the 

 right sort of man must be found for this business. We have 

 a vivid recollection of some agricultural labourers we have met 

 with, whose doings or want of doing would have given Job 

 himself much exercise of spirit. Scolding is no use with them ; 

 they haven't it in them to do any good where they have to 

 think now and then. To give them a fair chance, the poultry 

 ought to have one of the smartest men on the farm, and if he 

 is " smart " in the Lancashire sense they will pay his wages. 

 It will sometimes happen that this sort of work, with its 

 variety and sense of responsibility, will just suit a man or 

 intelligent big lad who does not shine in the steadier, dull 

 routine, but rather shirks work in that on account of its 

 monotony. Variety will sometimes make a man like that, and 

 get value out of him when nothing else will. 



In the chicken-yard, if many chickens are reared, the help 

 of a labourer's wife will be useful, and may be required ; here 

 the labour is both lighter and nearer home. 



To arrange for a labourer engaged in other things, "just to 

 give an eye to the fowls," never answers. We have seen it tried 

 often, and it never has done so. On such a system, the fewer 

 fowls are kept the less the owner will lose by them ; and there 

 is no more to be said about it. Rather than attempt such a 

 half-system as this, it will be far better to go on in more the 

 old style, with a comparatively limited number, in the farm- 

 yard. Even here, by killing all the old fowls at once, and 

 thereafter killing them before they get old, with judicious 

 selection, and more systematic looking after the eggs all which 

 may be carried out by a wife or daughter without difficulty 

 some profit may be got out of the fowls, instead of the certain 



