PROFIT-SHARING.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5170, 26 August 1927, Page 1

PROFIT-SHARING.

AN ENGLISH INNOVATION. REDUCING WORKING COSTS. ‘‘l believe it possible in agriculture to have profit-sharing schemes, and to allow the workers to participate in the management of farms,” declared Sir Harry Verney, in an address at Buxton. England, recently.

“I have put into operation a profitsharing scheme on my own farm, and I have a meeting once a year with the men to talk over matters. Last year, which was a very bad one, my workmen received a share of only £2 6s Bd, but. although the- amount was small, it was a great incentive to them to do their best.

“Three years ago the men said they would like to keep sheep. I told them they were wrong, as the Ifi-nd was not suitable for sheep-breeding apd rearing. I finally gave way to them against my own judgment, so they bought the sheep, fattened them, and sold them. After they had reckoned up the financial result at the end of the year the men said they would rather not keep sheep on the farm in future. Sir Harry Verney said 'he believed that on the whole, if they took it over a period of years, farming did pay.

“In 1916, during the war, every farmer made something approaching a small fortune, but in 192.1 every farmer lost something like a small fortune,” he added.

The increasing use- of machinery on the farm has substantially reduced the ratio of man power to horses on the farm within recent years. The United States Department of Agriculture has compiled some figures which show the relation between the use of horses in various States and countries and the income which results therefrom. For every 100 agricultural workers in Italy 19 horses are used, bringing in an income of> £9 par man. In Germany for every 100 workers 53 horses are used, making an income of nearly £24. In America 205 horses are used, making an- average income of £5B.

The comparison between States in the United States is even more striking. In Alabama, Indiana, lowa, and Nebraska the number of horses per 100 workers is 81, 169, 386, and 471, with corresponding incomes of £22, £5O, £ll9, and £lB2.

Mr P. H. Stewart, of the Nebraska College of Agriculture, in an article on “Why Wide Variations in Corn-, growing Costs ?” published in the Breeders’ Gazette, remarks that it has been estimated that to grow an acre of corn (maize) with a hoe would require 300 hours of a man’s time. With the help of one horse this would be reduced to 100 hours, .with two horses to 40 hours, to three horses to 15 hours, and with four horses to about 10 to 15 hours.

“We have prided ourselves,” he writes, “on the fact that American farmers are. the most efficient in the world, largely because they use horse power freely. In 1890 it required 30 man hours to grow an acre of corn ; in 1900, 20 man hours ; in 1920, 10 man hours.; and in, 1926 it required 8 hours in Eastern Nebraska. Therefore in the last 40 years the American farmer has increased his efficiency four to five times. In the meantime, however, industry’ has on the average increased the efficiency of its labourers about ten times. On this basis a farmer, even with his high efficiency would have, to work two hours to produce wihat a man in industry does in one hour. Might this, at least in part, account for the difference in costs to-day between agriculture and industry ?”