60 WHEAT PRODUCTION IN NEW ZEALAND 
of all other farm implements including the drill, by 
which wheat, often along with manure, is sown. 
When the harvest comes he is expected to be able to 
drive the reaper and binder, and very often to stack 
later. Our conclusion then must be, that the general farm 
labourer should possess sufficient skill to be classed 
among skilled labourers. Unfortunately the view ex 
pressed above is not held universally by our democracy. 
On the other hand, there is a great tendency to class farm 
labour as wholly unskilled. The routine work of the 
office is exalted above the manual labour of the farm, 
and there is a constant flow of our most capable country 
workers into the towns, where very often their capa- 
bilities are wasted in some routine task, solely for the 
purpose of enjoying the cheap pleasures and amusements 
of town life. 
(o) Characteristics of Farm Labour.—The evil which 
is brought about by the current view of farm labour 
is that very often it is the workers who have been 
unsuccessful in town, whether through their incapability 
or their methods of living, who migrate to the country 
and take up employment there. While the farmer is 
able to obtain a certain supply of his labour from the 
vigorous country population, he has to be content in 
many cases to fill up the gap by the residue of town 
labourers. These labourers get through their task in a 
more or less efficient manner, but only under the very 
close supervision and constant attention of the farmer. 
Moreover, considerable losses from depreciation of plant 
and careless attention to horses are experienced, so that 
the farmer is paying a very high price for this kind of 
labour. Further, very many find their tasks a continual 
burden to them and take no pride in labour for its own 
sake. On the other hand, however, those labourers who 
are brought up on the farm develop an efficiency of a 
very rare kind. Most of them are interested in the 
