^ ibe Second Letter of Inquiry. 109 



spare days for each team and men for getting in the harvest, and any other unfore- 

 seen business that may fall out, such as a few days harrowing or ploughing up any 

 strong land for the first time, that may require a three-horso plough. All this is 

 performed by three men and two boys. The boys, as I call them, are to be fifteen 

 and sixteen years of age, as I allow sufficient wages to have them at that age, and 

 at any labour they will be equal to a man; they will be each of them able to reap 

 as much corn as a man. 



I come now to reaping and getting in the harvest, which my six people are 

 to reap 20 acres and get in all the harvest, which is uncertain to account for, 

 whether it be long or short ; all depends on the weadier; the time I take out of 

 the 137 spare days, which I have for both man and horse. I now come to 

 thrashing out the corn: 300 quarters are 2400 bushels, which one labourer will 

 thrash out at 5 bushels each day, and winnow and clear away the straw, which to 

 execute at that rate will take 480 days, and there are only 313 working day«, take 

 6 days off for pleasure, leaves 307, which from 480, leaves 173 days not yet ac- 

 counted for, which are to be done by the two boys and one of the men, with the 

 spare time they will have through the year, and will perform with ease ; the t>th?r 

 two men are to take care of the horses, arid do any necessary business thai, the 

 land may stand in need of. 



In ploughing, when the land has got into an easy tilth, the horses are to go 

 double, and the ploughman is to hold the plough and drive the horses at the same 

 time, by which mode of working, the horses will plough an acre and a half every- 

 day, which will gain a deal of time both for man and horse, and they will do their 

 work with great ease, more so than with one horse going before the other. But 

 if the land is too heavy for them, and they cannot step away, as a pair of horses 

 in a carriage, the plough will not work well nor steady. All this business, both 

 of team work and labour, is to be done with ease to a practical farmer who 

 knows when he has a day's work done, and at the same time as it should be, without 

 injuring either man or horse; but without the farmer knows the nature of all kinds 

 of work and business, he will get imposed upon, and always be behind hand with 

 his work, of whatever kind it may be ; but the true way of managing land, 

 for whatever use it may be, is to drive the work, and not let the work drive the 

 occupier. 



