The Country Gcntlamvis Magazine 



the condition of the labourers, those who toil the soil, 

 by which they are reared, so that some good might 

 come of it. Now, the only way by which I see this 

 could be managed would be to discuss at the dinner 

 questions affecting their interests. I have no 

 doubt, if .such questions were discussed at the 

 Association's dinner, and by other agricultural 

 associations throughout the country, such an amount 

 of intelligence would be brought to bear on the 

 topics connected with labourers, that, in process of 

 time, some practical results would be arrived at, 

 which would be capable of being carried out by 

 legislation. Now, we are all aware that there are 

 various subjects which might be discussed— for in- 

 stance, the question of increased house accommodation 

 for farm labourers, in which the labourers themselves 

 take a great interest, the farmers take a great interest, 

 and the proprietors take a great interest. There is a 

 difference of opinion on this subject. Some people 

 say there are plenty of houses for farm labourers. I 

 am not one of these, because I go upon the idea that 

 the farm labourer is entitled to receive good accom- 

 modation for himself and his family upon the farm 

 which he helps to labour. We all know that in 

 Buchan that is not the case, for it is often the case 

 that the family lives in a village four or five miles dis- 

 tant from the farm on which the labourer is employed. 

 Well, when I ask myself what is the cause of this, the 

 only conclusion I can come to is, that it is owing to 

 the poverty of the landlords and the law of entail. I 

 believe that a great many landlords are very sensible 

 of the importance of having good accommodation for 

 farm labourers, but they have no ready money with 

 which to build houses for them, while with their en- 

 tailed propertiesthey finddifficulty in borrowing money ; 

 and in consequence matters remain very much as they 

 are. I am not prepared to state what is the remedy. 

 I only state that there is a great want of ac- 

 commodation, and I think it is one of the subjects 

 which ought to be discussed at such meetings as this, 

 in order to come to a conclusion as to the remedy. 

 There is another point connected with farm labourers, 

 namely, how their prospects might be improved. My 

 opinion is that no class of the community have more 

 miserable prospects. A farm labourer may live upon 

 a farm to see it taken in from the heather, and live all 

 his time upon it in the way he began ; his children 

 herd together in the same way that children herded 

 together when he was a boy, and he has to look for- 

 ward to the poorhouse, as his father did before him. 

 It used to be the highest ambition of a farm labourer 

 to get a croft, but now the number of crofts has been 

 greatly lessened by the system of laying out large 

 farms, and labourers cannot be expected to accumulate 

 so much as to be able to take such farms. When I 

 was in England, I went to Suffolk to see a farm where 

 a principle had been carried out which, I think, if 

 adopted in Scotland, might improve the condition of the 

 labourer. It was on a propertybelonglng to Mr Gurdon, 

 who let one of his farms of 130 acres, thirty years 



ago, to twenty-one labourers. The farm labourers meet 

 together once a year to elect a committee of manage- 

 ment from their own number, who manage the farm, 

 and every year the profits are divided amongst them. 

 I found the farm consisted of 133 acres, for which 

 they paid ;^ 194 of rent. There were seven labourers 

 employed on the farm, and there being twenty-one 

 connected with it altogether, the rest work on other 

 farms. I found their wages on the average were about 

 13s. a-week. I found most capital crops on the farm, 

 and not only that, but I found that the condition of 

 these farm labourers was very far superior indeed to 

 the condition of labourers employed on the neighbour- 

 ing farms, and that their status was raised in every 

 way by having them raised to the position of 

 farmers. Now, I am quite sure, if the co-operative 

 principle could be applied in that way to farming, 

 that good results would accrue to farm labourers. 

 Of course, I go upon the assumption that they 

 were so educated as to be able to take advan- 

 tage of co-operation. If any proprietor had the 

 courage to let one of his farms in the same way 

 as Mr Gurdon did, I have no doubt he would be 

 amply repaid. Then, another point in connexion 

 with farm labourers is the question of education ; but 

 that leads into a wide field, into which I shall 

 not enter at present. Any one who was at Aberdeen 

 the other day, and saw the implement department, 

 and amongst other things the steam ploughing ma- 

 chine, cannot fail to be impressed with the Importance 

 of educating our farm labourers, so that they might be 

 able to know something of mechanics, and be able to 

 work those engines with skill. I suppose there are very 

 few farmers in Aberdeenshire who have laljourers of 

 such skill as to be able to understand those machines, 

 I am of opinion that, in every school, the elements of 

 mechanics and of chemistry should be taught, so that 

 farmers and their servants should be able to get that 

 knowledge. In that respect we are far behind other 

 countries. In Germany, for instance, they have got 

 wandering professors, who go about instructing pro- 

 prietors and farmers in the use of the several improve- 

 ments in implements and other things connected with 

 agriculture. I have only mentioned these subjects as 

 such as might be taken up at meetings like this. 



[The "crofts" spoken of by Mr Fordyce are small 

 holdings common in the north of Scotland, and parti- 

 cularly in Aberdeenshire, which form, as it were, an 

 intermediate stage between the position of farm 

 labourer and that of tenant farmer ; and the Banff- 

 shire yoiirnal, a very competent authority on the sub- 

 ject, discusses the question raised by Mr Fordyce in 

 the following terms : — • 



Mr Fordyce, in another address, drew attention 

 to the condition and prospects of the farm labourer. 

 There is no doubt whatever that crofts are by 

 no means so numerous as they were; but we are 

 not sorry to observe that Mr Fordyce neither him- 

 self proposes to return, nor does he advocate a 



