Why is combined and specialized production more economical? It may
be because it gets more efficient work out of labor, it may be that
larger operations make feasible the employment of more efficient
methods and machinery. The cost of production may be lowered, by
either or both of these means, or it may be lowered by an increased
efficiency in machinery, even with a decreased efficiency in labor.

Combination and specialization so commonly cut down expenses because
of large operations and the use of better tools, that we may take
this saving for granted. When it comes to labor there is a different
story. The negro working with boss and gang, or the machine-tender
in the factory work as well or better for large than for small
concerns, but the labor of a poultry plant is different. It is made
up of a great many different operations well scattered in space and
time. For the most part it is simple labor, but it is essential that
it be performed with reasonable concern for the welfare of the
business.

In other industries, as with men working at a bench, the presence of
a foreman keeps them busy and their work may be daily inspected. To
have foremen in poultry work would require as many foremen as
laborers, and even then they would be as useless, for when the last
round of the brooders is made at night a foreman standing three feet
away could not know whether the laborer who had placed his hand in
the brooder had found all well or all wrong.

It is useless to carry the argument farther. The labor bill is one
of the biggest items of expense in poultry production. With a system
where the efficiency of the labor decreases with the size of the
business, large industrial enterprises are impossible. Such savings