Amateur Farmiiis: a Hundred Years Ace 



133 



is the least ready at accounts, and a bailiff 

 that is not these is nothing : they are requisite 

 to his office as the knowing wheat from 

 barley. The master's part of the business 

 comes but once a year, and may be a week's 

 easy employment ; but the bailift' may also do 

 three-fourths of that — viz., the division of the 

 expenses into distinct heads, but it must be 

 under the gentleman's direction. Now, can 

 any one raise a doubt of the benefit resulting 

 from this practice not answering far more 

 than such an expense? I think it is impossible, 

 and that many do at present practise it, and 

 that more will hereafter do it. . . . 



I shall, in the next place, take the liberty 

 of offering a few remarks on the employment 

 of servants and labourers, as far as it particu- 

 larly concerns a gentleman farmer, which is 

 a point of very great importance in the gene- 

 ral economy of a farm. 



If a gentleman keeps a bailiff, ser\-ants 

 are more profitable for all sorts of team work, 

 except filling a cart and taking care of cattle, 

 than labourers, because such articles require 

 a constant number of men to be absolutely 

 depended on ; but I am in doubt about this 

 point if no bailiff is kept to see regularly to 

 the hours and work of these servants. I am 

 confident they will not obey the master even 

 tolerably, unless for a month or two, perhaps 

 when they first enter into his service. A 

 farmer who lives with his men, and perhaps 

 works with them, will always be much better 

 obeyed. This point I must own has troubled 

 me more than once ; nor could I ever manage 

 to be totally at ease respecting it. There is 

 no part of farming so irksome and provoking 

 to a gentleman ; he cannot take a walk or a 

 ride without having proofs that every farmer 

 around him has more work for his money 

 than he has, and how to remedy it without a 

 spirited active bailiff" I know not. 



Scolding and threats, and high words, 

 either produce such impudence as no gentle- 

 man will bear — a revenge that will much 

 injure him in cattle, crops, or some other 

 point, or a deceitful conduct — that is, pre- 

 tending to do better in the thing in question, 

 but acting ten times worse in some other 

 respect. For instance, you are troubled to 



get your fellows to plough as much in a day 

 as they ought ; after many words you think 

 you have gotten the day, but examine how it 

 is ploughed, perhaps not better than scratched 

 over. 



If, on the contrary, you try what a mild, 

 easy behaviour will do, and take no notice of 

 trifles, you will infallibly be imposed upon in 

 every particular, and your servants will soon 

 learn to be impudent and despise your au- 

 thority ; and I have had such experience of 

 numerous dispositions among farming men, 

 that I will venture to assert (miracles ex- 

 cepted) the impossibility of this not being 

 the case. 



I have often reflected on the different 

 methods of a gentleman's managing his 

 fanning servants when his farm is too small 

 to afford a bailiff; and I must own I could 

 never fix on any conduct that was exempt 

 from great objections. One management is 

 to give the head man so much per annum 

 wages above the price of the country, and 

 above what he agrees to take, that he may 

 be under some fear of losing his place; 

 while a gentleman pays no more wages than 

 a common farmer he has not a sufficient tie 

 upon his men. But such extra wages he 

 must not be suffered to consider in the style 

 of making him anything verging towards a 

 bailiff', in slackening his work ; he must, on 

 the contrary, be told, on hiring, that his extra 

 wages are given him for absolute and im- 

 plicit obedience. 



Let us suppose a dialogue between the 

 master and man upon this point of hiring. 

 My readers will excuse me dwelling on these 

 minutiae of a gentleman's management ; those 

 who experience them will either not call them 

 trifles or allow that trifles are of very great 

 importance. 



Master — You say you can plough, sow, 

 mow, make a stack, and understand catde ? 



Man — Yes : I won't turn my back on any 

 man for that work. 



Master — And that ten guineas are the 

 lowest Avages you will take ? 



Man — I can take no less. I can have it 

 anywhere. 



