786 
Projit-Shm'ing in Agriculture. 
engaged upon tlieir work is, to quote the language ot one of 
my own employes, " to fetch the night." 
There is, of course, that incentive to good work which comes 
with the hope of rising in his profession and of becoming a 
bailiff ; but that is an incentive which appeals only to those who 
are above the average of their fellows in character and effi- 
ciency. There is also the motive which causes every self-respect- 
ing man to take an interest in his work — namely, that of satis- 
fying his own conscience ; but the men who give extra attention 
to their work simply to satisfy their own high standard of duty are, 
I fear, still in a very small minority, and I am speaking of the 
great majority when I say, that under the present system which 
prevails generally over Northumberland and the Lothians, there 
is no sufficient incentive to cause a man to put brains and 
energy into his work. 
The relation between the amount of his wages and the pro- 
sperity of the farm is so faint and remote as not to weigh with 
him at all. It matters not to him whether the harvest be good 
or bad ; it makes no difference to his wage. So long as liis 
employer's solvency is assured, it is no concern of his whether 
the farm prospers or not. If he likes his house, his employer, 
and his fellow-labourers, and he wishes to remain on the farm, 
there is the natural inducement to work well enough not to be 
turned off at the end of the year. But this inducement cannot 
be said to be very powerful, for even when young men do not 
prefer, after four or five years of full hind's work, to leave 
agriculture for the more stimulating company and excitement of 
the towns, families seem to like the change and variety which 
are provided by migrating from one farm to another every second 
or third year. The consequence is that there is little or no 
inducement provided by the healthy stimulus of self-interest for 
the agi'iculfcural labourers to concern themselves about the 
efficiency of their labour. 
The fact that the success or failure of the farm on which 
a hind is employed makes not one atom of difference to him 
must have a most seriously depressing influence upon him. It 
must tend to make him profoundly indifferent as to the chai'acter 
of his work. Instead of his faculties being constantly sharpened 
by the spur of self-interest, they are not called into play. The 
brain, for lack of exercise, loses half its power, the bright face 
in time assumes the expression of settled vacancy, the arm 
grows heavy and the step slow, and gradually the hind loses all 
the glowing promise of his boyhood, as he develops the wooden 
inefficiency of the automaton, and the qualities which. have 
earned for him the sobriquet of " Hodge." 
