THE POULTRY PRODUCING COMMUNITY 
ployment of more efficient methods and machinery. The cost 
of production may be lowered, by either or both of these 
means, or it may be lowered by an increased efficiency in 
machinery, even with a decreased efficiency in labor. 
Combination and specialization so commonly cut down ex- 
penses because of large operations and the use of better tools, 
that we may take this saving for granted. When it comes to 
labor there is a different story. The negro working with boss 
and gang, or the machine-tender in the factory work as well 
or better for large than for small concerns, but the labor of a 
poultry plant is different. It is made up of a great many dif- 
ferent operations well scattered in space and time. For the 
most part it is simple labor, but it is essential that it be per- 
formed with reasonable concern for the welfare of the busi- 
ness. 
In other industries, as with men working at a bench, the 
presence of a foreman keeps them busy and their work may 
be daily inspected. To have foremen in poultry work would 
require as many foremen as laborers, and even then they 
would be as useless, for when the last round of the brooders 
is made at night a foreman standing three feet away could 
not know whether the laborer who had placed his hand in the 
brooder had found all well or all wrong. 
It is useless to carry the argument farther. The labor bill 
is one of the biggest items of expense in poultry production. 
With a system where the efficiency of the labor decreases with 
the size of the business, large industrial enterprises are im- 
possible. Such savings as will be made in buying supplies, 
selling, etc., will be wasted in the reduced efficiency of labor. 
The bulk of labor in poultry work must be self-reliant labor 
and the only test for such efficiency is number of chicks reared 
and the weight of the egg basket. Even this will not be a 
complete test unless from the income be subtracted the feed 
bills. 
A system of renting or working on shares that will gain the 
advantages of centralization without losing the individual in- 
terest of the laborer, will go a long way toward making the 
poultry business one wherein large capital and large brains 
can find a place to work. I expect to see in the future some 
such system evolved. In fact we have to-day a profit-sharing 
plan between owner and foreman on many of our best plants. 
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