LABOUR QUESTIONS 25 



rules regulating the hours of work, meal-times, etc., and 

 stated times for the payment of wages. Such rules 

 should be strictly enforced, especially with regard to the 

 times for starting and ceasing work. In a large staff, 

 laxity in these matters means considerable loss, and regu- 

 larity is mainly a matter of habit. 



Horse Labour 



No more efficient means of cultivating the soil has 

 been found than the operations of digging, forking, 

 trenching, and hoeing by manual labour. Valuable as 

 this is, the expense is so heavy that wherever possible it 

 is reduced by the employment of other power, and the 

 larger the area of land to be dealt with, the more 

 necessary it becomes to utilise cheaper sources of 

 labour. With the aid of the best ploughs of various 

 forms, and the many excellent cultivators now in the 

 market, horse power can be turned to good purpose, 

 especially on heavy soils, which need so much strength 

 to break them up sufficiently. It is only at particular 

 times that the soil is in the right condition for operations 

 of the kind named, and it is therefore necessary to 

 complete them as quickly as the means at command 

 will permit. The satisfactory preparation of any heavy 

 soils by horse labour depends entirely upon the 

 frequency with which they can be worked before they 

 are too wet. For many of the refractory soils (which 

 are not, however, those usually selected for market 

 garden crops) a period of exposure in a roughly turned- 

 up state to the action of frost and weather is also 

 essential, and when that can be provided the condition 

 is improved in a surprising manner. On light and 

 medium soils, simple horse ploughs and cultivators can 

 be used to good purpose ; but on the more substantial 

 loams, two and three-horse machines are requisite, and 

 in some instances we have had to employ four horses to 



