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The Country Geittleman's Magazine 



by the week for looking after the horses and 

 taking care of them, and paid by tlie acre 

 for ploughing. What is the result ? We will 

 take the same case I have mentioned. You 

 go into the field to-morrow morning plough- 

 ing by the acre, and you have those two mid- 

 dling fellows and the lazy one. Won't you put 

 the whip over his back if he won't stir quicker? 

 You won't let him plough only part of an 

 acre when he might plough a whole one. 

 You won't let him dawdle away his time. 

 You won't let him sit under the fence to 

 smoke his pipe because it happens to rain a 

 little as it does to-day. You won't allow him 

 three minutes to turn round a headland when 

 he can do it in one. If you chance now to 

 go to the public-house on Saturday night to 

 have your half-pint, you will be sure to meet 

 him there — he is very slow to work, but he 

 is very fast to drink — and he will turn the 

 laugh against you about what you have done ; 

 but if you work by the piece, and not by 

 the day, you will have the laugh against him, 

 because in the end, instead of his getting 

 I2S. a week, if he does not quicken his pace 

 and improve in his habits, he will get only 

 9s., whilst you will be able to earn your 15s. 

 and perhaps i6s. a week. I say, then, to all 

 you men coming here as you do with superior 

 character, and having shewn by your skill 

 that you are better labourers than many of 

 your class, ask your masters for piece work, 

 and I am sure that they will grant it wherever 

 they can. By that means the farmer won't 

 pay any more per acre than he does now, 

 and the best labourers will earn ever so much 

 more, and the indifferent and lazy ones and 

 the stupid fellows must come up to your 

 level, or else they will only get what they 

 earn, and that will be precious little. There 

 is only one other point upon which I will 

 make any observation, and that is to the 

 young men. You are all of you earning 

 better wages than your fathers did when they 

 were your age, by at least 25 or 30 per cent. 

 Do you make a good use of those wages? I 

 am quite in favour of beer. I like it in 

 moderation myself; I wish everybody else 

 who likes it to have it ; and I shall be glad 

 to see the day when every labouring man 



shall have a pint of good wholesome beer for 

 his dinner; but don't spend at the public- 

 house all the spare cash that you have. You 

 must be provident, and take care of the 

 future, and, therefore, I say to you, young 

 men, let it be your first object and your first 

 duty to provide against the day of trouble and 

 sickness, which is sure, sooner or later, to 

 come to all of us. 



At the dinner Mr Read said : — Probably 

 some of you may remember that last year, 

 when I mooted the question of the Con- 

 tagious Diseases (Animals) Act in the House 

 of Commons, I said it was time we should 

 have a committee to inquire into its action,, 

 but the Government were kind enough to 

 allow the House to be counted out; why 

 they did so I don't know, but perhaps they 

 did not like the subject, or, possibly, because 

 they might have had an adverse division. 

 But I am happy to say that Mr Forster now 

 sees the necessity of having an inquiry inta 

 the subject, and has promised me a com- 

 mittee next year. But I want to know 

 v/hether you practical farmers do not think 

 that the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act 

 has been a perfect failure in this district. 

 The operations of the Act, as far as regards 

 pleuro-pneumonia and foot-and-mouth dis- 

 ease, certainly inflict upon owners of stock 

 an immense amount of injury, and to all 

 appearance do no good whatever. We 

 have now in this country an amount of foot- 

 and-mouth disease such as we never had 

 before. I find that during the last twelve 

 months we have had in this country no fewer 

 than 1 06 1 cases of pleuro-pneumonia, of 

 which 734 have been reported during the 

 last three months. We have also had during 

 the last twelve months no fewer than 191,000 

 cases of foot-and-mouth disease, 131,000 of 

 which occurred during the past three months. 

 Therefore we seem to be getting from bad to 

 worse. Let us hope the tide is turning, not 

 from any preventive action of this Act of 

 Parliament, but from natural causes. Only 

 think of 191,000 cases of foot-and-mouth 

 disease ! What a loss that is to the country. 

 Take it at only los. a head — for of course 

 there are a great number of sheep — and 



