these
things. #Capital is requisite, then, not so much that we shall labour,
but that we shall labour economically and with great success.# We may
call it a secondary requisite, and it would be best to state the
requisites of production in this way--

{ #natural agent.#
#Primary requisites# {
{ #labour.#

#Secondary requisite# #capital.#

#20. How to make Labour most Productive.# The great object must be to
make labour as productive as possible, that is, to get as much wealth
as we can with a reasonable amount of labour. In order to do this we
must take care to labour in the most favourable way, and there is no
difficulty in seeing that we ought to labour

(1) #At the best time#;
(2) #At the best place#;
(3) #In the best manner#.

#21. Work at the best Time.# Of course we ought to do things when it is
most easy to do them, and when we are likely to get most produce for our
labour. The angler goes to the river in the early morning or the
evening, when the fish will bite; the farmer makes hay while the sun
shines; the miller grinds corn when the breeze is fresh, or the stream
full; and the skipper starts when wind and tide are in his favour. By
long experience farmers have found out the best time of year for doing
every kind of work: seed is sown in autumn or spring; manure is carried
in winter when the ground is frozen; hedges and ditches are mended when
there is nothing else to do, and the harvest is gathered just when it is
ripe, and the weather is fine. Norwegian peasants work hard all day in
July and August to cut as much grass, and make as much hay as possible.
They never think of timber then, because they know that there will be
plenty of time during the long winter to cut down trees; and when the
snow fills up all the hollows in the mountain side, they can easily drag
the trees down to the rivers, which rise high with floods after the
melting of the snow, and carry the logs away, without further labour, to
the towns and ports. It is a good rule not to do to-day what we can
probably do more easily to-morrow: but it is a still better rule not to
put off till to-morrow what we can do more easily to-day. In order,
however, that we may be able to wait and to do each kind of work at the
best time, we must have enough #capital# to live upon in the meantime.

#22. Work at the Best Place.# Again, we should carry on every kind of
work at the place best suited fo