THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



)03 



demand for the allotments half a mile from the village as 

 for those which were close to it. Of course, labourers 

 generally would give the preference to land which was 

 near their dwellings ; but it should be remembered that 

 there must be reciprocity in all such matters : the party 

 who lets an allotment must let it partly for his own 

 benefit as well as for the benefit of the occupier, and in 

 all cases the allotment system must be self-supporting 

 if it was to continue to exist. Whenever there was an 

 allotment vacant half-a-mile from the village there were 

 plenty of applicants for it, and that appeared to him to 

 show conclusively that the distance was not iflaterial. 

 At all events, it was better that the labourer should 

 have land half-a-mile or even a mile distant from his 

 dwelling, than that he should have none at all (Hear, 

 hear), and he was convinced that if the allotment 

 system were well carried out, it would do much to im- 

 prove the condition and elevate the character of the 

 labouring population. He had only one more obser- 

 vation to make. He recollected hearing Mr. Baker, 

 whose absence on that occasion he much regretted, 

 speak some years ago of one of the abuses of the allot- 

 ment system — namely, that in some cases the poor 

 employed the Sabbath in working on their land. That 

 was indeed one of the greatest abuses that he could 

 conceive, and he thought that wherever it existed the 

 owner of the soil should put his veto on such a practice, 

 and compel the labourers to abstain from cultivation on 

 the Sabbath. 



Mr. Mechi thought Mr. Williams was mistaken in 

 supposing that labourers having a rood of land would be 

 able to fat two pigs with their own produce. In his 

 (Mr. Mechi's) part of the country they generally bought 

 two or three sacks of barley-meal for each pig. 



Mr. Williams said he was of course aware that 

 labourers could not fatten a pig on nothing ; but he 

 meant to say, that when a man had forty poles of land 

 in his occupation, they must take into account the 

 produce of his land, and consider how far the refuse of 

 his cottage might, in his improved circumstances, be 

 made use of in the cultivation of his land. He did not 

 mean to say that it was always advantageous to grow 

 wheat. After cropping his land for two or three years 

 with wheat, the labourer might have recourse to barley, 

 and he believed that was done with advantage on his 

 own allotments. 



Dr. Ellis (Sudbrook Park, Richmond) thought that 

 there was nothing more graceful to be found in the 

 history of agriculture than the assembling of a number 

 of owners and occupiers of the soil to consider how 

 they might improve the condition of labourers. Half 

 a century ago in was supposed that all farmers cared 

 about, as regarded those whom they employed, was to 

 get as much out of them as possible. This could no 

 longer be imagined, when owners and occupieis met to- 

 gether and devoted their time and thoughts to the pro- 

 motion of the interests of agricultural labourers. 

 Such discussions as this must tend to make labourers feel 

 an additional interest in those who were so anxious 

 about their welfare (Hear, hear). He had watched the 

 allotment system ever since it came into operation with 



great interest, and he was convinced that it was attended 

 with very good results, on the whole, and with very 

 little evil. He had seen it carried out on land which 

 had not been considered worth enclosing : he had seen 

 that land brought into a state of improvement far su- 

 perior to that which it could have attained under a 

 broader system of cultivation, and he had seen people 

 thus raised from a condition of degradation, rags, and 

 misery, to one of sobriety, comfort, and morality. This 

 improvement was owing, he thought, in a great degree, 

 to the mere fact of their being employed ; for it was an 

 universal truth, which they had probably all learnt in 

 their childhood, that "Satan finds some mischief still 

 for idle hands to do." If they wanted to keep a la- 

 bouring man out of mischief, they must endeavour to 

 keep him constantly employed (Hear, hear). Indeed, 

 whatever grade of society they examined, it would gene- 

 rally be found that the best and most useful members 

 of society were persons wlio were nearly always occu- 

 pied in a profitable manner. It was a mistake to sup- 

 pose that the strength which a labouring man gave to 

 his ordinary day's labour for hire was all that he could 

 employ for his own advantage. There were great fun- 

 damental errors with respect to physical strength. 

 Strength was to be obtained from rest and repose, not 

 by filling the body with stimulants. When the labour- 

 ing man had returned from his day's labour for his em- 

 ployer, if he took a wholesome meal, provided he were 

 in good health, he would in about half an hour reno- 

 vate his strength, awd be fit for work again, although he 

 had been occupied all day : he was now speaking of 

 course of the fair working- day. The man might go to 

 work for an hour and a- half, or two hours, according to 

 the time of year, and if he produced more in his garden 

 tha!i was required for the wants of the household, his 

 wife might take the surplus to market, and thus pro- 

 cure the means of buying barley-meal, and saving part 

 of the wages for the benefit of the family. There were, 

 it must be admitted, two or three very serious evils con- 

 nected with the allotment system. One evil was, that 

 some proprietors charged too much rent for land let out 

 in allotments. He had really felt quite ashamed some- 

 times, on asking labouring people how much they paid, 

 when he heard their reply. He had not, indeed, told 

 them it was too much, not wishing to do anything to 

 create bad feelings in the community ; but he made the 

 inquiry because he felt deeply interested in what so 

 much concerned the welfare of the labouring classes. 

 He had heard of 18d. a pole being charged for what was 

 in fact nothing scarcely but common white sand : it 

 formed part of land which had never been enclosed. 



Mr. Mechi: That is i?12 an acre. 



Dr. Ellis said he could mention a place where that 

 rent had been charged. He hoped, for the sake of de- 

 cency and justice, that it was not done generally. 

 Whether, however, it were done only in a few instances, 

 or in many, they must all feel that it was a very serious 

 matter to charge too high a rent for land cultivated by 

 the labourer (Hear, hear). Attempts on the part of 

 clergymen or laymen to get an enormous rent for land 

 was an enormous evil. Another evil was the allowing 



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