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TJie Country Gentlonans Magazine 



dinary labourers are getting from eighteen to 

 nineteen shillings a-week in this way : — 



I'er week. 



s. d. 



Allotment of land — about £a, of profit, or i 6 



Task work during half the year at 3s. or i 6 



Industrial profits in the farm, ;^5 to ;^7 say 2 6 



Weekly wages 12 o 



Harvest 50s., or I o 



18 6 



" Besides this, they have beer and cheap 

 cottages, gleaning privileges and carriage of 

 coal. Sunday men get an extra shilling, and 

 those that keep a cow get five shillings a-week 

 more out of it, so that my head waggoner, 

 who keeps a cow, must be getting over 

 twenty-five shillings a-week, including all al- 

 lowances, and yet I have never raised his 

 weekly wages directly. The other day there 

 was a meeting to form a Union in the next 



village, and my men attended at my request. 

 They were hooted for refusing to join, but 

 when they explained what they were earning 

 they had the laugh on their side ; and some 

 London agitators who had come down to 

 speak, declared publicly that if all the farmers 

 acted as I did, their occupation would be 

 gone. I believe no union or agitation, or 

 strike would have any effect on my men. I 

 overheard one say to another a few days ago, 

 ' We want no strikers here.' As for the la- 

 bourers with cows, the offer of another three 

 or four shillings a-week beyond their present 

 earnings would not tempt them to go else- 

 where. The men seem very grateful to me 

 for what I have done, though except in treat- 

 ing them kindly and intelligently, I am doing 

 nothing but consulting my own interests, and 

 they certainly work harder on my farm than 

 anywhere else this side of the Trent." 



SANITARY IMPROVEMENTS IN THE RURAL DISTRICTS. 



IT seems almost too good to be true, but 

 nevertheless it is a fact, remarks the 

 Cambridge Chromc/e, that at last a law is in 

 operation , distinctly providing for the public 

 health. Those living in corporate towns are 

 under Urban Sanitary Authorities, already 

 acting, or to be constituted by the new acts ; 

 villages or rural districts are under Rural 

 Sanitary Authorities. The first of the two 

 measures thus affecting everybody is an act 

 amending and more strictly legislating for the 

 prevention of adulteration of food and drink, 

 and of drugs. The old law only dealt with 

 persons selling articles t/iey k?iezu to have been 

 adulterated, so that a loophole was left for 

 escape unless the criminal knowledge could 

 be proved. Now, however, all persons who 

 actually adulterate or order to be adulterated 

 any article of food, intended for sale, are 

 rendered liable to a penalty of /50 for the 

 first offence, and afterwards to three 

 months' imprisonment. The wilful seller 

 of an adulterated article is liable to 



a maximum penalty of ^20 for a first 

 offence, instead of ^$ as heretofore. These 

 stringent enactments will aid materially in 

 preventing the adulteration of food. The 

 deterrent agency will be rendered still more 

 effectual by the appointment of public 

 analysts being made compulsory, instead of 

 optional in future. The appointments will 

 be filled by Courts of Quarter Sessions for 

 counties and Town Councils for Boroughs 

 having a separate Quarter Sessions or a 

 separate Police establishment. It is laid 

 down by the legislature that these oflftcers 

 shall possess a competent medical, chemical, 

 and microscopical knowledge as analysts, 

 of all articles of food, drink and drugs 

 sold within their respective jurisdictions. In- 

 spectors of Nuisances, Inspectors of Weights 

 and Measures, and Inspectors of Markets are 

 empowered to procure and submit for ex- 

 amination to the analyst articles suspected to 

 be adulterated. Furthermore, the purchaser 

 of any article of food or drink, or any drug 



