452 Labour Organization on East Midlands Farm. [Aug., 



followed, one-quarter will be in rotation grasses or clovers 

 and three-quarters under the plough. If the ley is left down 

 for two years then the course becomes a five-course shift, and 

 the proportion under grasses is two-fifths and under the plough 

 three-fifths, and, if kept down a third year, then one-half is 

 under grasses and the other half under the plough. Of course 

 the increased stocking capacity of the farm with a greater area 

 under rotation grasses will counteract the tendency to reduce 

 labour requirements, but an acre under grass together with the 

 stock it will carry, should not, unless dairy farming is being 

 carried out, require so much labour as an acre under the plough. 



The greatest economy in laying down to grass or having a 

 larger area under ley will probably lie in the horse-labour. The 

 horse-labour requirements are extremely low in comparison with 

 all the other crops, and as stock generally make little demand 

 for horse labour the increased stocking necessary for a larger 

 area of permanent grass er ley would hardly have any influence 

 on the horse-labour requirements. 



Labour Requirements of Different Farms. — Manual Labour. — 

 It will be evident from the figures supplied in the last table that 

 large variations must occur in the labour requirements of 

 farms. At one end of the scale we have market-gardens 

 employing 12 to 20 persons per 100 acres in the cultivation of 

 small crops with high labour requirements, and at the other 

 end the grazing of sheep where the manual labour falls below 

 1 person per 100 acres. Between these two cases large variations 

 arise, and to determine with any degree of accuracy the number 

 of hands required on any given farm is one of the most difficult 

 problems of farm management. The land and stock managing 

 capacity of the labourer varies with the size and type of the 

 farm, with the fertility of the soil, the method of cropping 

 adopted and the type of stock carried. It varies also with the 

 implements and machinery at the disposal of the labourer, these 

 to a certain extent determining his efficiency, and this again 

 is closely bound up with the managerial ability of the farmer 

 himself and the capital at his command. 



It is probably true that on arable farms, or farms mainly 

 arable, the size of the farm will be the chief factor in determining 

 the land and stock managing capacity of the labourer. As the 

 size of the farm increases implements and machinery can be 

 more extensively and economically used, and the manual labour 

 requirements are therefore smaller in proportion as the size 



