TJic Country Gcntkniaiis Magazine 



tion to the subject, from experience of 

 labourers in different districts, will fully 

 endorse Mr Denton's remarks, and agree 

 with him that it is impossible, under present 

 circumstances, to adopt a common standard 

 of wages, as recommended by those who 

 support combinations among agricultural 

 Labourers. 



When it is stated that Mr Denton has been 

 inquiring into the standing wages in nearly 

 every part of England during the last seven- 

 teen years, in connexion with his special 

 duty of reporting on the agricultural opera- 

 tions of the General Land Drainage and 

 Improvement Company, it will readily be 

 seen that he has had opportunities for obtain- 

 ing information such as very few possess, 

 and that any statements which come from 

 him on this subject, must, therefore, be ac- 

 cepted as authoritative. The average weekly 

 wages of the farm labourer he sets down as 

 ranging from los. 6d. in the mid-southern 

 and south-western districts to 14s. 6d. in the 

 north-eastern district; the mean average 

 throughout England, of able-bodied men, 

 being 12 s. 6d. This, however, is exclusive 

 of extra allowances at hay time and harvest, 

 and all payments for piece work and over- 

 time, as well as the value of various perqui- 

 sites in the shape of beer, milk, fuel, &c., and, 

 we may add, in many instances, of cottage 

 accommodation rent-free. When the value 

 of these extras is taken into account, along 

 with the direct money wages, Mr Denton 

 considers that the farm labourer gains from 

 15s. to 1 6s. per week, taking the mean of 

 England. 



But even this aggregate does not include 

 every thing, for the farm labourers have an 

 advantage, as compared with town operatives, 

 in the lower rents which they pay for their 

 dwellings, and in having a garden wherein they 

 may grow potatoes and vegetables, articles 

 which cost an ordinary mechanic's family 

 2S. 6d. a week in a town. It is often the 

 case also that the agricultural labourer is 

 fortunate enough to have a rood of allotment 

 ground — "which," says Mr Denton, "he 

 ought invariably to have" — and this, culti- 

 vated after work hours, is sufficient to yield 



him a return, after payment of rent and seed, 

 of say at least ^^4 a year, which is rather more 

 than IS. 6d. a week. Through such means 

 the wages of the agricultural labourer is raised 

 to 19s. or 20s. a week, "independent of what 

 his wife and children may make, and this 

 frequently adds 25 per cent, to his income." 

 Mr Denton does not take into account " the 

 favourable difference in the cost of bread, 

 meat, milk, &:c., in the country compared 

 with what it is in towns, nor the benefit our 

 agricultural labourer is said to derive from 

 "keeping a pig," as he is " doubtful whether 

 anything is fairly gained by it." On this last 

 point we entertain no doubt whatever. We 

 know that it is a most important point in 

 favour of the agricultural labourer that, for the 

 most part, he can keep a pig, and even if the 

 value of the carcase does nothing more than 

 cover the cost of food purchased for the use 

 of the live animal, there is the advantage of 

 having a supply of wholesome animal food in 

 the house for the use of the labourer's family 

 as well as of himself. But a pig will do more 

 than this ; we have tested the point over and 

 over again, and feel quite satisfied that money 

 expended in extra food for the use of the pig 

 is amply repaid, leaving the meat at a lower 

 cost than it could be purchased from the 

 butcher. There is also the manure for the 

 allotment or the garden to be taken into con- 

 sideration, and the mere fact of having a pig 

 is a source of interest to every member of the 

 cottager's family down to the youngest toddler. 

 A well-filled bacon-rack is far from being a 

 despicable article in the furnishing of a farm 

 labourer's cottage. By all means, therefore, 

 let him have his pig ; and, we would add, 

 fowls also, of a good sort, wherever it is prac- 

 ticable. 



But, although Mr Denton has shewn that 

 the position of the agricultural labourer is 

 not so bad as it has been represented, still he 

 allows that no one can say it is quite satis- 

 factory. With the profits of farming as low 

 and uncertain as they are, he considers 

 that it must be acknowledged that the 

 only way to justify an increase of labourers' 

 wages is by rendering the value of the labour 

 greater than it now is. Education is the first 



