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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



years and having the land clean. He did not find " quickens " 

 so great an eaeiny as wild oats and mustard. lu a crop of 

 barley there was a difference of four bolls an acre where mus- 

 tard grew and where it did not. A few years ago he had a 

 loss of £3 an acre where wild oats and mustard grew in afield 

 of fifteen acres of wheat. Weeds were a great uui'sance, and 

 took a great deal of nourishment from the turnips. 



Mr. Cook showed that the practice in the valley of the 

 Tyne would not work well on the hills. 



Mr. Smith had tried for a good many years a system of 

 laying manure in the back end of the year, and drilling up the 

 laud ; he found it entirely fail ; but his land was on the bill- 



side, and the storms broke up the furrows, and washed the 

 best soil to the bottom of the hill. He quite agreed with Mr. 

 Grey, that the manure should be laid on fresh. 



The Chairman beiieved there was a time when they might 

 destroy thistles, but it was neither at their earliest growth nor 

 when too ripe, but when the stem near the ground was so far 

 matured as to be a little hollowed, so that the first rain fell 

 into it aud rolled it down. He believed there were no means 

 of eradicating wild oats or mustard but by first allowing them 

 to vegetate and then pulling them out. Wild oats might be 

 one hundred years in the land, and still vegetate when brought 

 to a certain distance of the surface. 



LABOURERS' REGISTRATION OFFICES versus STATUTE FAIRS. 



In the agricultural discussions of the past year, a 

 paper by Mr. John Marshall, of liiseholme, Lincoln- 

 shire, on the maintenance of farm -servants, occupies 

 deservedly a very prominent position. Himself a 

 pi-actical man, residing in one of the best- cultivated 

 districts of the kingdom, Mr. Marshall spoke more 

 especially to his own experience. This would appear, 

 indeed, to have had only one drawback — it was almost 

 too good. The hinds of Lincolnshire were certainly 

 the happiest race of peasantry under the sun, 

 while rumour went on to say they were also the 

 best servants. They really showed some return 

 when well cared for. In detailing his practice 

 Mr. Marshall went on to say how he paid 

 his men, and where in accordance with the custom of 

 the country he obtained them. He referred of course 

 to the district Statute or Hiring Fairs. He stated at 

 what times his people were permitted to attend them, for 

 the purpose of finding fresh places. And he did all 

 this without in any way denouncing the means which 

 lead to such an end. On the contrary, it would come 

 rather as part of a system, which as a whole was 

 proved to work remarkably well. In the autumn of 

 this same year the reverend Mr. James read another 

 paper on much the same subject, and at the same 

 place — the Central Farmers' Club. In the course 

 of this, the latter took occasion to directly de- 

 nounce these Statute Fairs as " the labourer's curse" : — 

 " Let us consider that dangerous age when our lads 

 think themselves their own masters and beyond control ; 

 when they leave the roof of their parents, or first em- 

 ployers, and sauntering forth perhaps to a statute fair 

 (which is, I maintain, the labourer's curse), let them- 

 selves out for a mere twelvemonth to any master who 

 may engage them; at the expiration of that time 

 setting off again to meet with another master, a new 

 home, and new companions, hardened perhaps in crime 

 and villany, considering themselves mere migratory 

 beings, with now little or no religious character, no 

 sense of Sabbath duties or Sabbath observance, and 

 nondescript in feelings, habits, and views, instead of 

 the upright, handy, diligent, skilful, trustworthy 

 servants of which we talk, but take so little pains to 

 produce." Now there is palpably a great deal of this 

 in direct opposition to what Mr. Marshall had already 

 told us. He showed us that lads and men hired at 

 statutes might be, and were, steady and diligent; that 

 they did attend church ; and that, perhaps, in no other 

 way were they so certain of becoming skilful and trust- 

 worthy labourers. 



It is only right to say, however, that Mr. James, as a 

 clergyman, by no means stands alone here. Indeed, 

 the two classes seem very much inclined to join issue 

 on the subject. The clergy say these hiring fairs are 

 most terrible evils, conducive to all kinds of vice, aud 

 that they ought accordingly to be done away with 



The farmers, on the other hand, see no great harm in 

 them — and maintain, moreover, that it would be diffi- 

 cult and inconvenient to do without them. This very 

 argument is now being discussed in Mr. Marshall's own 

 county. At the instance of the clergy, a meeting has 

 been held within these few weeks, in Lincoln, with the 

 object of establishing a " Servants' General Registra- 

 tion Society," that is to say, a register-office which shall 

 embrace equally in its operations domestic servants and 

 farm-labourers. The Bishop of Lincoln opened the pro- 

 ceedings. After speaking to the defective education of the 

 poorer classes, his Lordship went on to say, " There is 

 another disadvantage to which our farm-labourers are 

 subject— the early age at which they leave home. 

 I do not mean simply the early period at which they 

 are sent out to work ; but the youthful age at which 

 they are put out to service at a part of the county very 

 far from their home, so that long before their character 

 is formed they are removed from the reach of those in- 

 fluences by which character ought to be formed — not 

 only from their parents, but from those to whom they 

 have been taught to look up — and they are often thrown 

 in contact with bad characters, whose influence begins 

 to act upon them. Added to this is the great dis- 

 advantage, as I must think it, though it is to a great 

 extent perhaps inevitable, of the annual changing of 

 situations. This, I am aware, cannot, to any great 

 degree, be obviated, because as the boy's or girl's 

 labour becomes of greater worth in proportion as they 

 grow older, and as their masters or mistresses may 

 not require just that kind of labour, they must 

 seek to better themselves elsewhere. But I have 

 reason to believe that the almost universal prac- 

 tice of these changes arises in a great degree 

 from the custom of the country, and from the will 

 of the children themselves, who seem to consider it 

 quite right that every year they should remove to a 

 different situation. However this may be, I believe 

 that this practice, conjoined with that of not requiring 

 character at these hirings, is the cause of an almost in- 

 calculable evil. Ii results from this — and I beg you, 

 gentlemen, to mark my words — it results from this, 

 that a good character is of little or no value to a farm 

 servant. We know that in the case of ordinary domes- 

 tic servants, their good character is their capital. It is 

 that on which their success in life depends. They know 

 that if they lose it they must be content, perhaps for 

 the whole remainder of their lives, to put up with 

 worse situations, both in point of comfort and remune- 

 ration. But our farm servants are without those 

 motives. Hired without any inquiry into their cha- 

 racter, they feel that it is of no consequence to them to 

 acquire a good character in their present situation, 

 because they leave it at the end of the year, and it is of 

 no greater advantage to them in their future situation, 

 because in all probability it will never be asked for. 



