The labourer understands sarcasm and makes use of it himself, but irony is often lost upon him.  Passing an old man on a pouring wet day, I greeted him, adding, “Nice morning, isn’t it?” He stared, hesitated, and then, “Well, it would be if it wasn’t for the rain!” I only remember one surly man—­not one of my workers or tenants.  He was scraping a very muddy road, and I remarked, for something to say, “Makes it look better, doesn’t it?” All I got in reply was, “I shouldn’t do it if it didn’t!”

It is important, in managing a mixed lot of farm labourers, to find out each man’s special gift, making him the responsible person when the time or opportunity arrives for its application.  There are men, excellent with horses, who have no love of steam-driven machinery, and vice versa; and there are men who are capable at small details, yet unable to take comprehensive views.

Responsibility is the life-blood of efficiency, and men can always be found upon whom responsibility will act like a charm, producing quickened perception, interest, foresight, economy, resource, industry, and all the characteristics that responsibility demands.  Put the square peg in the square hole, the round peg in the round hole; show the man you have confidence in him, teach him to act on his own initiative in all the lesser matters that concern his job, coming only to the master in those larger considerations to which the latter are subordinate, and my experience is that your confidence will not be betrayed, and that he will save you an immense amount of tiresome detail.

The most difficult man to deal with is the over-confident “know-all”; he is always ready to oppose experience—­often dearly bought—­with his superior knowledge, he can suggest a quicker or a cheaper way of doing everything, and in his last place he “never saw” your system followed.  He is the penny-wise and pound-foolish individual, and his methods are “near enough.”  It has been said that at twenty a man knows everything, at forty he is not quite so sure, and at sixty he is certain that he knows nothing at all; but there are exceptions even to this rule, who continue all their lives thinking more and more of their own opinions, and completely satisfied with their own methods.  On the other hand, the master will always find, among the more experienced, men from whom much is to be learnt; they are generally diffident and not too ready to hazard an opinion, but when consulted they can give very valuable help.  I willingly acknowledge my indebtedness to my old hands, their well-founded convictions that were the fruit of long years of practical experience, and their readiness to impart them in times of doubt and difficulty.

Just as bad-tempered grooms make nervous, bad-tempered horses; rough and noisy cattle-men, fidgety cows; ill-trained dogs and savage shepherds, sheep wild and difficult to approach; so does the bad-tempered, impatient, or slovenly master make men with the same bad qualities, when a smile or a kind word will bring out all that is good in a man and produce the best results in his work.