Profit-Sharing in Agriculture. 789 
I 
if the weather, have a positively golden value, under circum- 
tances where a careful hand would have gone on the " even 
lenour of his way " without a break or check. 
' And in the stackyard, as in the field, the same difference 
between a good and bad worker will be easily observed. The 
^ood stacker will keep his stack well filled in the centre, and 
vill give his sheaves a slope up towards the centre, by doing 
.vhich he will make the stack perfectly water-tight, so that it will, 
3ven without a covering, point the rain which may fall upon it 
is eflficiently as "any umbrella. But to raise a stack like this 
requires care and skill and trouble. A lazy and careless stacker 
finds it easier to lay his sheaves in an almost horizontal 
position; when the stack settles, the slope resembles the gradient 
of the saucer not of the umbrella — the trend is downwards from 
the circumference to the centre, not upwards : and the loss is of 
course enormous. 
In the management of animals, even those who know nothing 
jf farming operations will be aware that profit or loss will 
depend in great measure upon the patience and care of the man 
in charge. Every farmer knows of some valuable animal which 
has been lost simply through the idle carelessness of the hind. 
After a hot piece of work a favourite mare has been left to 
"starve" too long in some position exposed to the north-east 
wind, with the result that she dies of inflammation, and straight 
fly 70^. to 80/. out of the pocket of the farmer. 
At Howick, in the course of a not very long period, four or 
&ve horses which have been employed in dragging fallen timber 
out of the plantations have been lost tbrough the carelessness 
of the hinds, who neglected to make them fast, and thus allowed 
them to fill their stomachs with the poisonous yew. The rule, 
which now exists at Howick, that any man who loses a horse 
through this cause, will also lose his bonus, will, it is hoped, 
prevent a repetition of a similar calamity. 
Enough has now been said to show how great is the loss 
that may be sustained by a farmer, who is served by unintelli- 
gent and careless labour. But while it is impossible to estimate 
the damage done to a farmer by a careless man, or to measure the 
increased value of the work of a labourer who realizes that his 
interest is bound up in the farm, over that of a labourer who 
has no interest in the produce of his industry, we have xome 
guide in the experience of large employers as to the diffevence 
in the value of the labour of a man paid by the piece and of a 
man paid by time. 
Sir James Kitson, speaking of mechanics, says : " The man 
paid by the piece will do one-third as much— or 33 per cent. 
