AGRICULTURAL ARITHMETIC

Te Aroha News, Volume I, Issue 37, 16 February 1884, Page 8

AGRICULT UR AL ARITHMETIC

Rkfkiiring to the Nairnshire Farmers' Association for the destruction of rooks, which /.-rives a penny a head tor every rook slaughtered, a writer in the West Curnhei l.ind Time* opportunely recall*, a conversation which took pi, ice in a House of Commons Committee on the Game Laws in 3 8-15 helween Mr John Bright and Mr Givmtly Berkeley. Mr Berkeley stated that in districts nnfrequented l»y rooks, hoys were employed as a substitute to hunt for that destructive foe of the farmer, the wiro-worm. The boys, said Mr Berkeley, in reply t > Mr Bright, were paid at the rate of three halfpence rer hundred for the number of wire-worms they destroyed. On being" asked how much a boy could earn at diis rat 2 of payment, he said '' iSiiiepeuce \>ev day." Questioned as to the number of worms a boy would destroy per d;iy in earning the ninepence, Mr Berkeley found himself in a quandai v. Mild j'i iged that 'the best way to jet out of it was to go 'nto a rage, which he accordingly did. "lam not here," he sai.t, (k to answer intricate aiithuictical i[uestions." "If a boy

[makes niuepencep^r duv n destroy hg wire-worms of i c- rate" of ono penny half-penny p^r h 'mire*, ho-v ninny tnn4 he destroy per day ? it yuii liud Unit problem too intricate for yon," continued Mr Bright., "will you toll us wither a ';;>y can do (ho woi'k as wo 1 1 ns a crow?" "'A crow- is \\<>r(. i filty bo\-3 at stioh .vur ."rep'iel Ah Berke'ey. This was rather startling information ; tno matter was getting to be more ihteresting as the inquiry proceeded. So Mr Bright appeared to think, as he pursued the witness with the further question — '' If a boy is worth ninepenee per day in destroying' ■wire-worms, and a crow is worth fifty boys at work, how much is the crow worth to the farmer in sterling money?" Again Mr Berkeley was disposed to reply by getting into a rage, hut his inquisitor was not to be outdone. Paper, pen, and ink, were applied, and Mr Berkeley was assisted in his calculations, when it was discovered that a crow v. ns wort!) to the fanner within two and sixpence of ;£"2 per day. "The bird being worth nearly £2 per day, what may be its yearly value?" was the •joxt query. '* About £7.0.)," answered Mv Berkeley. He had before said that fifty would be a low average number of crows for each farm in some districts ; and lki was now finally aske 1, " What is the aggregate value per year to the tanner of his proper quota, of lhese useful birds ?'' This, we are told in the narrative evolved the most startling conclusion of all, for it appeared that the farmer was a gainer of £35.000 per year by his fifty crows ! Pursuing this crow business a bit furl her, another problem arises — Tf a boy is able to make ninopence per day by killing wire-worms at one penny halfpenny per hundred and a crow at such work is worth fitty boys, thus earning £2 per day, or .£7OO per year, what will have been the total loss to the Nairushire farmers by the Jest ruction of four thousand crows at one penny per head ?