The Condition of the Rnral Labouirr 



step towards effecting this desirable end, 

 but Mr Denton is not of opinion that 

 our efforts should be confined merely to 

 elementary school education. To this must 

 be added " technical, that is, practical educa- 

 tion," which he explains to be " practical 

 tuition in those operations which men are 

 called on to perfonii in the business of life." 

 He shews the effects of the lack of such 

 training in relation to agriculture, by referring 

 to the difficulty of obtaining in many parts of 

 the country, good shepherds, good horse- 

 keepers, and catdemen, who thoroughlyunder- 

 stand their business. Great loss is also fre- 

 quently sustained from the ignorance of farm 

 labourers respecting the management and ad- 

 justment of costly machinery ; and he adds 

 that "there is hardly an operation in tillage that 

 would not be done better, if the operator had 

 early understood it." The same remark applies 

 to other matters, such as hedging, ditching, 

 draining, thatching, &c., and the way in 

 which he proposes to remedy this unsatisfac- 

 tory state of things is to place boys engaged 

 on farms in special departments, such as under 

 the shepherd, the cattleman, or the engineman, 

 instead of placing them indiscriminately one 

 day to do one thing and the next another. 

 He proposes that the person in charge of 

 each department should be paid a bonus for 

 teaching the boy placed under his care, and 

 that the youths should, at certain periods, 

 undergo examinations, and, where practicable, 

 be made to compete with other youths for 

 prizes. This, we know, to be a good sugges- 

 tion, having had opportunities of carrjdng it 

 out in practice, so far as regards the appren- 

 ticeship, if we may so call it, of youths to 

 special departments of farm labour, and 

 keeping them at it, until they had acquired a 

 knowledge of the details sufficient to render 

 them of more value to an employer, and, 

 therefore, able to earn a higher rate of wages 

 than if they had been employed indiscrimi- 

 nately in all kinds of farm work. 



Mr Bailey shewed the evil effects of beer, 

 such as that which is used by English rural 

 labourers, contrasting these with the good 

 effects of beef, and recommended four objects 

 as means of improving the condition of the agri- 



cultural labourer. These were, first, a more 

 general substitution of good cottages for bad 

 ones ; second, the provision of a proper means 

 for the drainage of villages and cottages, and 

 the utilisation of the refuse which may be dis- 

 charged from them ; third, the supply of pure 

 wholesome water, in quantity sufficient to 

 secure cleanliness and comfort to villages 

 and cottages ; and fourth, the provision of 

 ground for the recreation of those children 

 which, by common consent, it is determined 

 shall be educated. 



In addition to those objects, he also re- 

 commends the formation of benefit societies 

 on proper principles, the establishment of 

 garden allotments under a provident system 

 of management ; of village hospitals and in- 

 firmaries, and of co-operative societies. With 

 reference to allotments, which we regard as 

 a most important object, Mr J. K. Fowler, 

 of the Prebendal Farms, Aylesbury, stated in 

 course of the discussion which followed Mr 

 Denton's paper, that " he gave each of his 

 labourers half a rood of the best land on the 

 farm, as near as possible to the farm-yard, 

 and told them to take whatever manure they 

 wanted. And once a year, when ' harvest 

 home ' came round, they had a little 

 exhibition of the garden produce. All 

 this had an excellent effect in keep- 

 ing them from the beer-house, and in 

 encouraging habits of independence and in- 

 dustry among them." We most cordially 

 support Mr Denton and Mr Fowler in their 

 advocacy of allotments, having seen in differ- 

 ent parts of the kingdom, as well as in Eng- 

 land, many instances of the immense good 

 effected by that system. One of the most 

 interesting exhibitions it has been our lot to 

 attend, was the annual exliibition of garden 

 produce grown on the allotments held by the 

 labourers employed by the EarlofBessborough, 

 on his estate in the county of Kilkenny. The 

 specimens exhibited were invariably of a most 

 superior description, while the stocks from 

 which those specimens were taken did not 

 fall short of the samples. The results, as 

 regards the labourers and their families, are 

 highly beneficial ; they are comfortably cir- 

 cumstanced in every respect, and altogether 



