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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



as out of a horse, and that was a truth which should 

 always be borne in mind in reference to the situation of 

 the dwellings of agricultural labourers. (Hear, hear.) 

 He did not agree with Mr. Bennett as to clay land being 

 so disadvantageous to those who chose to cultivate it. 

 (Laughter.) On the contrary, he had great faith in an 

 honest clay (laughter) ; nor did he see how the use of 

 clay soils was to be avoided in purely clay districts. 

 Such land should indeed be well drained previously to 

 being let to the cottager. Was that generally done ? 

 He knew it was hardly ever done. (Hear, hear.) When 

 once clay lands had been effectually drained, and when 

 once the system of burning, which was very profitable, 

 had been carried out, the soil was often found to be 

 more useful and enduring than soils of a diffeient de- 

 scription. He hoped there would ere long be some 

 alteration of the poor law, which would tend to stimu- 

 late the building of cottages in the immediate vicinity of 

 farms. He knew that was not a question which they 

 were met to discuss that evening, but he could not re- 

 frain from remarking incidentally, that he trusted there 

 would not much longer be any inducement to the farmer 

 and the landlord to get rid of labourers by pushing them, 

 as it were, into adjoining parishes. (Hear, hear.) 



Mr. B. P. Shearer (Bishop's Waltham) wished to 

 ask Mr. Trethewy, whether it were customary on the 

 estates to which he had alluded to give allotments to all 

 persons who asked for them. 



Mr. H. TRETHEwy said, he had a list of applicants, 

 in which every application was entered ; and whenever a 

 vacancy occurred he selected the person whom he con- 

 sidered most suitable. 



Mr. Mechi supposed that even if applicants were 

 small tradesmen their application was not rejected on 

 account of their calling. 



Mr. Trethewy : No. 



Mr. J.A.WiLLiAMs(Baydon,Hungerford), said, there 

 could be no doubt that the new poor law had done much 

 towards placing the agricultural labourer in the improved 

 and improving position he now occupied ; and he hoped 

 that in ten years the labourer would be in a better posi- 

 tion than he was at present. The circumstance that he 

 was now thrown more on his own resources than he was 

 before the alteration of the poor law made it the more 

 incumbent on their part to aid and assist him in his en- 

 deavours to improve his o.vn position, and to make him- 

 self comparatively independent ; and by letting him 

 have the raw material to produce some of the necessaries 

 of life, in addition to what he obtained in his master's 

 service, they placed him on a footing which enabled him 

 to rear his children honestly and respectably, and made 

 both him and them better members of society than such 

 persons generally were tiventy or thirty years ago. 

 (Hear, hear.) The subject on the card had, in his opi- 

 nion, a very close connection with the welfare of the 

 agricultural labourer. He agreed with Mr. Trethewey 

 that a rood of land was the very outside quantity that 

 either landowners or occupiers should ever think of 

 allowing labourers to cultiviite. A rood would require 

 all the spare time beyond what the labourer ought to 

 give to the service of his master, in return for the wages 



he received. (Hear, hear.) Masters, of course, ex- 

 pected an honest day's labour for a day's pay ; and if 

 the allotment in any way interfered with the day's 

 labour for the master, it must be classed under 

 the latter part of Mr. Trethewy's subject — " the 

 abuses of the system." (Hear, hear.) He be- 

 lieved, however, that a rood was not more than a 

 labourer could properly and conveniently cultivate ; 

 that quantity would occupy his time usefully. During 

 the long evenings of autumn, he would be engaged in 

 breaking up the soil and securing his produce ; in the 

 spring he would be occupied in cultivation ; and in the 

 summer in cleaning his land. And all this would tend to 

 keep him from the public-house ; while, by this oppor- 

 tunity thus afforded to him of working up the raw 

 material, he might make a great addition to the comforts 

 of his household, and secure for it many comforts which 

 could not otherwise be obtained (Hear, hear). He knew 

 that many persons had objected to the production of 

 wheat on the ground, that it might be injurious to the 

 farmer : it should, however, be remembered that there 

 were many instances in which the labourer could not 

 employ a rood of land profitably unless he was permitted 

 to cultivate a portion of it with cereal crops (Hear, hear). 

 To say that he should produce nothing but potatoes on 

 a rood of land was to say, in effect, that he should follow 

 the rotten system which prevailed in Ireland until a few 

 years ago. If he were allowed to cultivate one-third 

 with cereal crops, with good spade cultivation, and the 

 refuse of the pigsty as manure, he would be enabled to 

 manage that proportion profitably, and, with the aid of 

 gleaning, would secure comforts to the poor man's 

 family which they themselves, perhaps, could hardly 

 conceive. It was of course possible that the labourer 

 might, by the production of such an article as wheat, be 

 tempted to turn rogue, and to increase his stock by 

 robbing his employer; but he did not think they ought 

 to stand in the way of the agricultural labourer by sup- 

 posing that he must of necessity be a rogue (Hear, hear). 

 If thry took a fair and practical view of the question, 

 the objcclion that the growth of cereal crops must be 

 injurious to the employer would vanish. One thing 

 that would add greatly to the comforts of the poor man's 

 family was the possession of a fat pig. He felt quite 

 certain that a man of industry and economy might, 

 with a rood of land, fat two pigs. Every time the 

 pot was boiled there was something that would aid in the 

 subsistence of the pig. It was possible, therefore, for 

 him to fat two pigs, and the sale of one would more than 

 pay his rent, while he might keep the other for the con- 

 sumption of his own famih , This was a practical way 

 of viewing the question. Many years ago he himself 

 allotted seven acres of a farm which he occupied among 

 labourers : that land laboured under two disadvantages, 

 which had been condemned by ^Ir. Bennett and Mr. 

 Mechi. In the first place it was strong, clay soil, and 

 undrained ; and in the second place, some of it, instead 

 of being close to the village where the labourers resided, 

 was about half a mile from it. That the distance, how- 

 ever, in this case was no obstacle in the eyes of the poor 

 man, was evident from the fact that there was as great a 



