320 



Farm Labour Organization. 



[July, 



regularly employed hands. Casual labour must be obtained, 

 and the general result is that high rates of wages have to be paid ; 

 and moreover a casual worker has not the same interest in the 

 success of the farm as a regular employee, and the combination 

 of high wages and indifferent work often results in costly labour. 

 The farmer is also adversely affected in another way. The 

 supply of skilled and reliable labour flowing to any industry 

 is directly influenced by the regularity or otherwise of the 

 employment offered. It is therefore not to be expected that 

 men, at any rate the most enterprising and efficient of them, 

 will remain in an industry where regular employment cannot 

 be depended on. Speaking of general farming, which so greatly 

 preponderates in this country, this casual labour problem is one 

 which every farmer should endeavour to deal with as far as 

 possible by looking ahead, and so organizing his farm as to 

 ensure that the work at all seasons is more or less uniform and 

 within the powers of the permanent labour. Agriculture is, 

 however, in many respects like warfare — the enemy may upset 

 the best laid plans. The weather, the friend of the agriculturist, 

 is also his worst enemy, and on this account he requires a high 

 standard of efficiency in management to overcome its vagaries. 



Of course this question is largely bound up with the progress 

 of invention in agricultural implements and machinery. Manual 

 labour may be the only means of performing certain operations 

 on the farm, and casual labour the most economical way of 

 getting them carried out, but as far as possible, and consistently 

 with getting the operations completed within a reasonable time, 

 they should be accomplished by the permanent staff of the farm, 

 stimulated, if need be, to greater effort by piece-work rates. 

 Against piece-work it is said that the work is not well done, but 

 so long as the farmer keeps a watchful eye on the men this 

 argument against its adoption largely falls. 



It is not intended in this paper to discuss the organization of 

 labour under the various types of farming which exist in this 

 country, but to illustrate a few aspects of the economics of farm 

 management which are well worthy of study by all employers 

 of agricultural labour. For this purpose the writer has selected 

 a farm in the East Midlands, and examined the labour records 

 kept for costing purposes from 1st June, 1918, to 31st May, 

 1919. The period 1st June to 31st May conforms to the 

 accounting period on this farm. 



The following statement shows the area of the farm, its crops 

 and stock, the number of persons employed, their equivalents in 



