OF SCOTCH AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS. 



11 



desire and willingness, unaided if necessary, to improve their 

 position, morally and socially, by a more conscientious and kindly 

 interest in their master's well-being and the duties assigned to 

 them, and by a more careful attention to the education of their 

 children, and to inculcating in their families habits of frugality, 

 cleanliness, and tidiness ; and then, doubtless, the happiness 

 and comfort of the rising generation of ploughmen will, when 

 their day of labour reaches its meridian, outstrip those of their 

 fathers. 



It is much to be regretted that the old mode of paying this 

 class of labourers, to a great extent in kind, is now becoming com- 

 paratively obsolete, through the more general custom of an almost 

 exclusively money payment ; for we maintain that no mere pecu- 

 niary remuneration will so satisfactorily, adequately, and comfort- 

 ably support and aliment a ploughman and his family, as when 

 certain defined perquisites (otherwise unattainable except as 

 wages) are continued. Where a cow's keep is allowed, for in- 

 stance, and is made part of the bargain between master and 

 servant, or when permission to keep a pig is given, and is calcu- 

 lated as part of the wages, we find that not only are these privi- 

 leges not productive of the petty jealousies and annoyances usually 

 alleged against them, but that, in such cases, the well-being and 

 dietary of the family is materially improved. This is abundantly 

 evident in many of the cases cited in our appendix, and of which 

 the following table affords conclusive proof, as showing the ave- 

 rage number of grains of nutritive food consumed weekly by a 

 labourer and his family when a cow is kept by them, as com- 

 pared with the case of one where the permission to keep a cow 

 does not exist. 



Classes III. and IV. are generally the worst fed of the rural 

 population, and vary but little from each other in point of dietary. 

 Socially and morally the condition of many of those designated 

 under Class III. may be regarded as a blot upon the otherwise 

 fair escutcheon of agriculture. Farm bothies occupied by single 

 women employed as field-workers, frequently mere girls, without 

 supervision, and under little or no control after working hours, 



