Telegraph Poles

An Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman applied for a vacancy with The phone company so The foreman said I'll give you all a trial day to see how many telegraph poles you can lay in that time.' At The end of The day The Englishman had done twenty-seven poles and The Scotsman had laid twenty-four.
'How many did you manage?' The foreman asked The Irishman.
'Five,' answered The Irishman.
'Well,' said The foreman, 'your friends managed over fifty between them.'
'Yes,' said The Irishman, 'but look how much they left sticking out of The ground.'