DURING I'KESS OF AGHICULTURAL WORK. 231 



X28 in waives, £17 in food, and £8 for propdilion of menial 

 servants' wa<^'es and the keeping up of bedroom, furniture, and 

 utensils — in all £53 per annum. 



But in tlie family of the cottar there is a fund nf la1)0ur from 

 which i^reat benefit is derived in Ijusy seasons, and in wliich lies 

 a great inilueemeiit to arable farmers to study and promote tlieir 

 accommodation and general well-being. In tlie "east country" 

 one worker only is usually bound, while in the west — especially 

 in dairy districts — it is }iot micommon to find as many as three 

 in one family bound to " milk and work out wlien re(^uired." 

 The fai-mer's anxiety for workers and milkers is measured in 

 most part b}' his system of stocking and green-cropping, and 

 similarly many sons or dangliters of the hinds are, in accordance 

 with the demand, bound to the farm or hired out to others. 

 Those cottars whose children are unable to work, or who have 

 none, must take a little lower wage from fanners \\\\i> do a pro- 

 portion of their work with their own families, who rely princi- 

 pally on towns and villages, or who have a greater ])roportion of 

 pastoral than aralde land. But those who require the laljour of 

 a family will not only be content with a little less muscular 

 power from the cottar himself, but may even give him a little 

 extra wages on account of the labour thus supplied. Befornia- 

 toiies and industrial schools have done a deal in supplementing 

 farm labour at busy times, but stern necessity alone will cause a 

 farmer to apply to such a dear and rather uncertain source. There 

 is a slight difficulty in keeping the families of the cottars regularly 

 employed, and this is rarely guaranteed. Sometimes work can 

 be got on a neighbouring farm, but although desirable for tlie 

 labourers, a want of authority renders them less useful both in 

 capacity and willingness. The experience of the M'riter is in 

 favour of regulating the nundjer, so that work can be given during 

 at least the dry days of nine months, after which there is no great 

 practical hardship as the income will show, and moreover they, 

 especially the women, need not be altogether idle. This system 

 keeps the younger members of a family at home M'ith and under 

 control of their parents, and although it is often assumed that 

 their associations in the fields are not of an elevating nature, 

 still they are nowise inferior in behaviour to those hired away 

 from lumie. To town or ^■illage workers they are every way 

 superior hi numner and beliaviour, and wliile the general quality 

 of their work is better, the quantity performed is in the ratio 

 favourable to the former of 3 to 4. 



The idea of a cottar — with his family in " bondage " as it is 

 styled — being very miserable, is a picture much overdrawn by 

 those who fancy rather than actually know his position. With a 

 comfortable cottage, garden, and potatoes, his milk and butter 

 supplied at wholesale price at the steading, his coals led free. 



