DRAWING KIDGES, ETC. 297 



ately over it. The work of preparation for the seed is then 

 complete. 



One great defect in our farming is the little regard that 

 is usually paid to the economy the proper distribution 

 of labour. We know what a material item of success that 

 is in our factories, and yet it is rarely understood or even 

 thought about on our farms. This operation of ridging, 

 simple though it be, is not a bad test of its application. 

 We have four parts of the machinery to arrange so that they 

 shall all gear into and harmonize with each other, and we 

 must recollect that in mechanics the real strength of a 

 machine or body is only equal to its weakest part. We 

 have here one part of the labour employed at the steading 

 in loading the manure; another employed between the 

 homestead and the field in carting the manure; labour 

 employed in the field in preparing it for the reception of 

 the manure, and in finishing it up afterwards ; and, lastly, 

 labour employed in distributing the manure equally on 

 the ground. Now, unless this has been well considered 

 beforehand, and a relative amount of strength assigned to 

 each part, the machinery will not harmonize, and the 

 work must cost more money than it ought to do. If we 

 take the field as our starting-point, it is readily known 

 what quantity of land can be laid up in ridges at given 

 widths in a given time ; and we can as readily calculate 

 what labour will be required to spread manure in the 

 intervals, or furrows, formed. The number of carts 

 required would be, of course, determined by the distance 

 between the homestead and the field; and the labour at the 

 homestead in filling would be determined by the number 

 of carts at work, or rather the space of time between the 

 loads. The object to be sought for is that every one (parts 

 of the machinery) should be continuously employed, and 

 in doing the work for which they are suited. The hardest 

 work is filling, and should be done by the stoutest hands ; 



