ty in quantity and character of demand._--Perfection of
routine-work is the special faculty of machine-production. Where there
is a steady demand for the same class of goods, machinery can be
profitably applied. Where fashion fluctuates, or the individual taste
of the consumer is a potent factor, machinery cannot so readily
undertake the work. In the textile industries there are many
departments which machinery has not successfully invaded. Much
lace-making, embroidery, certain finer weaving is still done by human
power, with or without the aid of complex machinery. In the more
skilled branches of tailoring, shoe-making, and other clothing trades,
the individual character of the demand--_i.e._, the element of
irregularity--has limited the use of machinery. A similar cause
retains human motor-power in certain cases to co-operate with and
control complex machinery, as in the use of the sewing-machine.

(_c_) _Uniformity of material and of the processes of
production._--Inherent irregularity in the material of labour is
adverse to machinery. For this reason the agricultural processes have
been slow to pass under steam-power, especially those directly
concerned with work on the soil, and even where steam-driven machines
are applied their economy, as compared with hand labour, is less
marked than in manufacturing processes. To the getting of coal and
other minerals steam and other extra-human power has been more slowly
and less effectively applied than in dealing with the matter when it
is detached from the earth.

(_d_) _Durability of valuable properties._--The production of quickly
perishable articles being of necessity local and immediate demands a
large amount of human service which cannot economically be replaced or
largely aided by machinery. The work of the butcher and the baker have
been slow to pass under machinery. Where butchering has become a
machine-industry to some extent, the direct cause has been the
discovery of preservative processes which have diminished the
perishability of meat. So with other food industries, the facility of
modern means of transport has alone enabled them gradually to pass
under the control of machinery. Until quite recently cakes and the
finer forms of bakery were a purely local and handicraft product.

(_e_) _Ease or simplicity of labour involved._--Where abundance of
cheap labour adequate to the work can be obtained, and particularly in
trades where women and children are largely