Profit-Sharing in Agricuthre. 
787 
'ITiis is the great fact to which landowners and farmei-g 
should turn their attention. The greatness of loss occasioned 
the waste of brains and energy should urge them to inquire 
vhether there do not exist methods by which it can be saved. 
The common criticism in Northumberland of the Learmouth 
ocheme is that while a landowner may be able to give a bonus 
CO his labourers, that act of generosity is not within the farmer's 
•each. These critics have failed, tlu-ough want of imagination, 
)r want of thinking, to grasp the fact that just as the applica- 
tion of manure to the soil brings into life and makes active 
;he dormant powers of the land, so the effect of the profit-sharing 
principle, when it is so applied as to cause the labourers to 
•ealise that half of the profits netted after a certain limit has 
aeen reached belongs to them, is to save the waste of human 
ihought and energy, and thereby to create a fund out of which 
;he bonus can be paid. 
Those who have a practical acquaintance with the details of 
'arming know from painful experience how serious is the loss 
svhich is caused to a farm through careless and indifferent 
abour. I have heard the remark from more than one farmer 
•vhen talking of his labourers : " If the gateposts were 100 yards 
ipart, they would run up their carts against one of them, sure 
3nough." This example may be taken as an instance of the 
loss which is occasioned in all the operations of the farm by that 
ivant of care which is caused by lack of interest. Where the 
leart is not in the work, there will be daily waste and daily loss 
)f opportunity. Where the heart is in the woi'k — because 
self-interest is in it also — we have the greatest security that 
luman ingenuity can provide, that every man will be a bailiff unto 
limself. 
It is, of coui-se, difficult to assess the value of the difference to 
I farmer between a good workman and a bad one. But it is 
ivident that loss and injury to the farmer follow the trail of the 
;areless man from morning until eve. Take an illustration from 
he field. In ploughing the lea to prepare an even and proper 
leed-bed for the oat crop, as is the custom in the North, a 
)ad or careless ploughman may be the means of causing loss 
—at the present price of oats — of from 11. to 2/. per acre, 
f the land is ploughed correctly, each furrow slice will be of 
miform thickness, and lie easily upon the other at the same 
miform angle, "presenting crests in the best possible position 
or the action of the han-ow." 
