64 



THE FARiMER'S MAGAZINE. 



room, with a fire and candle in winter, as a place of rest, re- 

 tirement, or quiet occupation, except the stable and bed- 

 chamber. 



5. To these may be added the nes;lect of insisting on some 

 satisfactorj' character (and especially a written one) on the 

 hiring of farm-servants. 



Here were many undesirable things, but all more or less 

 easy of remedy. It was determined, however, to aim first 

 at the reformation of that custom, already noticed, which 

 left such a ready excuse on the lips of every farm-servant 

 for neglecting his religious duties on the Sabbath-day. " I 

 have no time for public worship," said he ; "I am called 

 during the hours of divine service in another direction, to 

 feed mj' master's horses." 



Now it gives us real pleasure to record that since the first 

 mooting of these questions, in October, 1853, the willing 

 concurrence of the former in effecting a radical change in 

 the hours hitherto observed on the Sabbath on East Kent 

 farms has been more and more afforded. At the agi-icultural 

 meeting of 1854 this matter, which had been discussed at 

 their previous anniversaries, was again brought forward with 

 an earnest spirit. In October, 1855, a meeting_ of county 

 gentlemen and farmers took up the question again ; and in 

 September of the year following (1856) a still more influ- 

 ential meeting was held at Canterbury, William Deedes, 

 Esq , M.P., taking the chair. 



The resolution following was then proposed — 



" That this meeting, being desirous of removing every 

 obstacle to the religious and moral improvement of the 

 {arm labourers, recommends the adoption, henceforward, of 

 such hours of stable attendance on the Sabbath as shall give 

 every opportunity to farm servants to attend a place of divine 

 worship." 



This was followed by 255 signatures, including the names 

 of the leading gentlemen, yeomen, and farmers of the east- 

 ern division of the county. 



So the movement advanced. It was only necessary to 

 show that time had insidiously engrafted upon Kentish 

 farms customs and moral disabilities at once unnecessary 

 and injurious to the labourer, and right-minded men lost no 

 time in endeavouring to remove the evil. 



Yet long custom ia not broken through iu a daj', or even 

 in years. Accordingly the 3-car 1857, the fifth year of the 

 movement, found something still to be done. There were 

 f;irmers who still held back from an alteration in their 

 hours on a Sunday, in compliance with the prejudices of 

 many of the " servants," who clung to the old sj'stem, 

 which gave them a pretext to neglect those holy services of 

 God's house, which a low state of education too often un- 

 fitted them to enjoy. When reluctance " to change the 

 customs" manifested itself among the men, it required some 

 moral determination to carry out desirable changes, and to 

 meet it might be some inconvenience, the labour market 

 being barely supplied. Nor was this moral difficulty less- 

 ened ; if A carried out the system, and not being backed by 

 his neighbour B, had warning given him by his men, who 

 were immediately taken williout a character. 



One remedy alone remained for this —association. If the 

 farmers would agree to act on one and the same plan, and 

 each of them to vindicate the honour of the Sabbath, no 

 difficulty would remain. One more meeting, then, was 

 convened on the 3rd of October last. Mr. Deedes again 

 took the chair. The object of the meeting had the cordial 

 support of Lord Winchelsea, Lord Sondes, Lord Cowper, 

 and other influential persons. The association was pro- 

 posed and carried, under the name of " The East Kent 

 Agricultural Labourers' Association," and donations were 

 received. 



Little more remains to be added, in giving a summary of 

 this movement, than to state that the first meeting of 

 the committee has since been held, and the following ad- 

 vertisement circulated through the county papers : — 

 "East Kent Agricultural Labourers' Association. 



" The committee of the above association, having held 

 their first meeting on Alonday, Nov. 1(3, feel it due to its 

 supporters, and those interested in its operations, to lay be- 

 fore them the following statements : — 



" I. That the object of the Society is the religious, moral, 

 and social improvement of the agricultural labourers of East 

 Kent, especially the farm-servants. 



" 2. That the committee hare received information of a 

 very encouraging character respecting the closing of farm- 

 stables during the hours of divine service ; of the increased 

 domestic comforts now afforded to farm-servants ; and of 

 the success attending the establishment of night schools iu 

 various quarters. 



" 3. That, in their opinion, the first and most efficacious 

 means of carrying out their object, above-mentioned, is the 

 closing of farm-siables during the hours of divine lervice; and 

 next to this, the encouragement of night-schools^'' 



The advertisement is then followed by an appeal to the 

 public for support. 



And now we have only to congratulate the agriculturists of 

 East Kent and their farm-servants upon the successful com- 

 mencement of such an improvement upon old customs, as 

 that henceforward farm-service, in the particular above 

 alkided to, shall be no hindrance between a man and his 

 God. We congratulate the labouring class especially that 

 night-schools hold out, iu various quarters, the promise to 

 every man who will help himself that he shall not be at a 

 loss to find those who in turn will help him in his search 

 after self-elevation and improvement. Why should it be 

 said, in our day of progress and philanthropy, that any 

 adult of the labouring class is unable to receive the bless- 

 ings of divine and human knowledge because he ii unable 

 to read.!* 



It gives us still more pleasure to learn that inquiries have 

 reached the promoters of this movement from Oxfordshire, 

 Hertfordshire, and Northamptonshire, with a view of them- 

 selves advancing, by some kindred movement, the well- 

 being of the agricultural labourer in those counties. 



We only trust that many other counties will be found to 

 follow Kent and Norfolk; and that a reciprocal interest of 

 classes, in the welfare the one of the other, will more than 

 keep pace with the scientific and professional advances of 

 the day. In that class of single farm-servants whose special 

 mprovement has been agitated in Kent, be it remembered, 

 we see the expanding of that bulwark of our rural villages — 

 the orderly', staid, trustworthy, respectful, and highly re- 

 spectable " laboui-er"— the occupier of the neatest cottage — 

 the father of the best-conducted family — the most faithful 

 of servants to his earthly master, because also to his God — 

 the most unvarying attendant at the house of God — one of 

 the corner-stones of an English village. 



A Kentish Plough. 



"ENGLISH TRAITS," by E. W. Emerson.— Bacon 

 said, " Rome was a state not subject to paradoxes" ; but Eug- 

 laud subsists by antagonisms and contradictious. Ttie foun- 

 dations of its greatness are the rolling waves ; and, from first 

 to last, it is a museum of anomalies. This foggy and rainy 

 country furnishes the world with astronomical observations. 

 Its short rivers do not afford water-power, but the land shakes 

 under the thunder of the mills. There is no gold mine of any 

 importance, but there is more gold in England than in all 

 other countries. It ia too fai north for the culture of the vine, 

 but the wines of all countries are in its docks. Tfie French 

 Comte de Lauraguais said, " no fruit ripens in England but a 

 baked apple" ; but oranges and pine-apples are as cheap in 

 London as in the Mediterranean. The Mark-lane Ea'press, or 

 the Custom House Returns, bear out to the letter the vaunt of 

 Pope — 



" Let India boast her palms, nor enyy we 

 The weeping amber nor the spicy tree, 

 While^by our oaks those precious loads are borne 

 And realms commanded which those trees adorn." 

 The native cattle are extinct, but the island is full of artificial 

 breeds The agriculturist, Bakewell, created sheep, and cows, 

 and horses to order, and breeds in which everything was 

 omitted but what is economical. The cow is sacrificed to her 

 bag, the ox to his sirloin. Stall-feeding makes sperm-mills of 

 the cattle, and converts the stable to a chemical factory. The 

 rivers, lakes, and ponds, too much fished, or obstructed by fac- 

 tories, are artificially filled with the eggs of salmon, turbot, 

 and herring. Chat Moss and the fens of Lincolnshire and 

 Cambridgeshire are unhealthy, and too barren to pay rent. By 

 cylindrical tiles and gutta-percha tubes five millions of acres 

 of bad land have been drained, and put on equality with the 



