1922.] 



Farm Labour Organization. 



827 



work in the busy seasons. This rule is also applicable wh-.-n 

 there is a tractor on a farm, unless it can so overtake the work 

 as to keep horse work uniform throughout the year. The test 

 of practice only can show whether this can be done. Some 

 evidence that tractors do not fulfil this condition nor displace 

 Horses equivalent to their potential capacity is given by Mr. A. G. 

 Euston.* He says: " In every case investigated by the writer 

 one effect of the introduction of a tractor on a farm has been 

 without exception to increase the cost of horse labour per 

 working day, because, owing to the fact that at certain times 

 of the year, such as hay-time and harvest, horses are 

 absolutely essential, the introduction of a tractor is rarely 

 accompanied by the selling-off of its equivalent of horses. In 

 consequence there is a decrease in the number of working days 

 per horse per year.*' This, however, is only one aspect of 

 the various considerations which require investigation when 

 introducing a tractor. The manual labour which a tractor can 

 displace, the running costs and depreciation of the new equip- 

 ment as compared with the old, the advantages of getting work 

 done quickly and the influence on the yield of the crops, are 

 all factors which require to be measured in order to gauge 

 whether the combination of tractor power with horse power is 

 an economical one. 



Returning to the graph, it is well to notice how relatively 

 unimportant are the demands which stock make on horse labour, 

 though the sheep make a fairly steady demand. One horse was 

 definitely allocated to the shepherd during this year for the 

 carting of hay, concentrated foods, shifting of hurdles, etc., yel 

 in December and January this horse was not capable of under- 

 taking the whole of the carting work and the time of two horses 

 in the former month, and nearly the whole time of three horses 

 in the latter were required, principally for the carting of 

 roots. The remainder of the stock only require the services of 

 horses to any particular extent from December to April, again 

 mainly due to the carting of roots when the stock are indoors. 

 On a farm of this type, where the proportion of arable ' o mass 

 is high, the stock work is mainly supplementary to that on the 

 ;.i';il)le, and generally speaking, if provision is made for working 

 the arable, the same horses will easily do fche stock work in 

 addition. 



* A. G. Ruston. "The Cost of Horse Labour," Journal of tlir Ministry of 

 Agriculture, Dec, 1921, p. 810. 



