The Human Machine on the Land. 



81 



Simple Instruction. — By simple demonstration all these are 

 easy to teach to the old or young. It is so simple that it 

 can he taught to children of almost any age, and could he 

 taught in any village school playground: moreover, a hoy 

 leaving school at fourteen could be trained thus in many 

 necessary forms of work, and be skilled in work, whereas other- 

 wise he would go on to a farm without skill, and often by 

 working where poor skill prevails, even after a lifetime on it 

 would remain inefficient. 



That strength is not the ruling influence in effective working 

 1 recently demonstrated through a cinematograph film showing 

 girls after three months' training doing very varied work, 

 including most of the heaviest done on the farm. By the 

 proper application of their powers they were able to work with- 

 out undue fatigue, they got the knack of doing the work in 

 the most effective manner, and they worked with perfect 

 rhythm. 



It may be taken as a pretty safe axiom that if dung is loaded 

 and spread by long handled forks, if hoeing is done by dub- 

 headed hoes instead of swan necks, and if hedges are trimmed 

 back with short (one handed) swaps or fagging hooks, then the 

 standard of work generally is a low one, whilst the absence 

 of cabbages in a stock raising district is pretty good evidence 

 that the men have not learned to stoop without making their 

 ba(^ks ache. Yet nothing is easier than transplanting done 

 skilfully. With a proper stoop there is no need for back ache. 

 In many districts there is not a man who can plant 2,000 

 cabbages a day, yet after short training they are able to do it, 

 and find it easy to plant 5,000. Where this is done the crop 

 is cheaper and more reliable than any other form of root 

 growing. 



fn view of the large number of persons who have come on to 

 the land wholly unskilled, with little likelihood of training 

 whereby they will become skilled, whether they come as work- 

 men, small holders, men from the services, allotment holders, 

 who are spending energy with small results, one cannot fail 

 to see the low efficiency on the land. Boys come to the land 

 as stop gaps with no knowledge, skill, or incentive to work. 

 Thoy think that a fixed wage now will see them through life, 

 but without skill it will not. Any training or incentive to skill 

 is sorely needed to restore and maintain craftsmanship in agri- 

 rultural labour. It is necessary if th(^ land is to be kept under 

 cultivation. The significance of this is obvious. 



