20. First method, or cultivation by labourers on wages.
They may, in the first place, pay men by the day or the year,
to work their fields, and reserve to themselves the whole of the
produce; this includes a supposition that the proprietor pays all
advances, both for seed, and the wages of the labourers, until
after the harvest. But this method requires great labour and
assiduity on the part of the proprietor, who alone can direct his
men in their labour, see that they employ their time well, and
watch over their fidelity, that they shall not carry away any
part of the produce. It is true that he may pay a man of more
knowledge, and whose fidelity he knows, who, in quality of
manager and conductor, may direct the workmen, and keep an
account of the produce; but he will be always subject to fraud.
Besides, this method is extremely expensive, unless a large
population, or want of employ in other species of labour, forces
the workmen to content themselves with very low salaries.
