Page:The agricultural labourer (Denton).djvu/25

 or the touch of their skin, whether the man in charge of them known his business; and he will confirm my opinion, that any difference in wages will be more than counterbalanced by the saving in the corn which horses will consume when well attended to, and the better service then obtained from them compared with that gained when they have been indifferently treated.

The same remark will apply to the tending of neat stock. Speaking again from my own experience, I have found that cattle, under the charge of a man who thoroughly understands them, will fatten quicker, and in every respect do much better with less food, than under a man who, from attempting indiscriminately all the duties of the farm, is master of none. In the minor matter of poultry, I have known many pounds lost by the want of proper treatment of them, and have found a labourer's wife with a small plot of ground, who has brought intelligence to bear, has raised more poultry than has been produced from a farm of several hundred acres. If this be admitted to be the case with live stock, it will be unnecessary for me to point out the advantages of employing men in the use of implements who have taken pains to understand them. The loss sustained by farmers from the careless treatment of costly implements is great. Few labourers know how to adjust them if they get out of order; and one who thoroughly understands the steam-engine, so as to take charge of it when ploughing land or thrashing corn, is indeed a prodigy in his parish. And why should we dread the purchase and use of steam-engines on our farms, on the ground that we have not a labourer who could take care of them, when tuition in youth would supply the omission? It is true that my friend, Mr. Howard, of Bedford, now and then undertakes to tutor