122 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



maintenance, mere profit and loss, a perfectly safe one, 

 and even a desirable one. Only let the artificial inter- 

 ference between the buyer and the seller be done away 

 with ; let knowledge of the state of the market, whether 

 for labour or for its produce, all over the country be 

 general ; let the price of agricultural and all other pro- 

 duce be the natural result of simple competition among 

 consumers, and the price of agricultural labour be the 

 natural result of simple competition among employers; 

 let intelligent self-interest — and self-interest in the long 

 run always is intelligent — let intelligent self-interest 

 lead to the use of machinery and steam — in fact lead 

 where it 2oiU — and the greatest happiness of the greatest 

 Dumber will the sooner be attained. 



As, however, I have shown, if fears and lamentations 

 have any place at all, it is in behalf of the masters 

 rather than of their men. 



One illustration more of the pi'esent value of agricul- 

 tural labour in this country, and on this part of my 

 subject I have done. In the autumn of 1849, just ten 

 years ago, I applied, through the correspondents of a 

 weekly agricultural paper, for information on this 

 subject, and from most of the English counties and 

 many of the Scottish ones I obtained answers to printed 

 questions as to what is the present wage of able-bodied 

 men, what is their weekly wage at harvest-time, what 

 is tiie ordinary daily wage of women in the field — what 

 is the cost of mowing clover, of mowing meadow grass, 

 of mowing barley, of harvesting a good ordinary crop 

 of wheat — what is the ordinary rent of cottages, and so 

 on. Within the past month I have done the same 

 thing again, and have been told the rate of wa^es by 

 93 gentlemen, residing in 12 Scottish and 35 English 

 counties. There is thus the opportunity of making a 

 very fair comparison of wages at a sufficient interval 

 of time. 



Let me quote a few instances, taking the weekly wage 

 of an ordinary able-bodied man as the criterion, and, 

 of course, endeavouring to do it without boring you by 

 quotations from so many separate reports. 



In Aberdeensliire, Mr. M'Donald, of Huntly, re- 

 ported the wages of ploughmen in 1849 to be £1G a 

 year, with board and ludging ; they are now £22, with 

 board and lodging. Mr. Grigor, of Forres, reported 

 ten years ago the ordinary weekly wages of an able- 

 bodied man to be 9s. to 10s. ; now he puts it at lis. 

 Mr. Bell, of Ferryden Farm, Forfarshire, reported it 

 at 10s. ; he puts it now at 12s. in winter, and 15s. in 

 summer. Similarly, Fifeshire wages were Os. and lOs. ; 

 they are now lis. and lis. 6d. In East Lothian the 

 wages were worth 10s. a week, or 10s. with coals 

 hauled free; and now they are valued at 12s. to 15s., 

 &c. In Mid Lothian ]\Ir. Melvin reported the annual 

 wages of the married ploughmen at 9101bs. of oatmeal, 

 12cwt. of potatres, two meals daily during harvest- 

 time, the hauling of four tons of coal, and ^17 in 

 money; he now repoits them at 1,050 lbs. of oatmeal, 

 8 cwt. of potatoes, four weeks of harvest food, coals 

 carted, house-rent free, and ^£'21 in money. Go, now, 

 to the south of Scotland, and in Wigtonshire Mr. Caird 

 reported wages ten years ago at 9s. a week; he puts 

 them now at 12s. A woman's daily wage was 8d., and 

 it is now lOd. 



In Northumberland, wages, according to Mr. Grey, 

 of Dilston, were 12s. weekly, with cottage and garden, 

 and carriage of coals free ; they now are 15s., with 

 house and garden free ; and Mr. Dods, of Hexham, 

 gives to good ordinary labourers 15s. a week in winter, 

 and 18s. a week in tummcr. Mr. Drewry's wages at 

 Holker, North Lancashire, were 13s. Od. ; they are 

 15s. to 16s. 6d. Mr. Evans, of Wigan, in South Lan- 

 cashire, reported wages to be 12s. a week ; Mr. Twining, 

 in the same neighbourhood, reports them now at 14s. 



From Lincolnshire I had four reports of (he wages of 

 able-bodied men, and they run thus — 10s., 9s. to 10s., 

 lis. to 12s., and 9s. to 10s. I have four reports from 

 the very same employers now. and they run thus — 12s., 

 12s., 12s., 10s. to 12s. 



Mr. Spencer, of Knossington, Leicestershire, told me 

 ten years ago that 8s. to 10s. were the wages of the 

 able-bodied men, and he puts them now at lis. to 12s, 

 Take, now, the case of Norfolk : Mr. Cubiit, of North 

 Walsham, ten years ago, put the wages at 7s. to 8s., 

 and the carters Is. to 2s. extra; now it is 9s,, and the 

 carters 10s. Gd. In Northamptonshire, Mr. Grey, of 

 Courteen H^U, Northampton, reported 8s. and 9s. as 

 ordinary wages ; he puts them now at 12s. weekly. 



In Warwickshire, Mr. Burbury, of Kenilworth, who 

 reported 8s. to 9s. weekly in 1849, rcporls lis. weekly 

 in 1859. 



In Worcestershire, Mi. Hudson, of Pershore, who 

 named 8s. formerly, now says 10s , or 9s. with two 

 quarts of beer a day, are ordinary weekly wages. 



In Oxfordshire Mr. Druce, of Eynsham, stated 8s. 

 weekly, the carters and the shepherds having cottages 

 rent-free in addition ; wages now are 10s. to 12s., plough- 

 men and shepherds from 12s. to 14s. 



In Wiltshire, the worst paid county in the kingdom, 

 wages were, some ten years ago, 6s. to 7s. for ordinary 

 labourers a-week ; they are 8s. a-week at present. 

 In Kent tliey were9s.and 10s., and are now lis. to 12s. 

 From Sussex I had three reports formerly, 8s. to 

 10s., 10s., and 10s.; and I have three reports now, lis., 

 lis., and 12s. 



From Dorsetshire I had five reports, averaging 7s. 

 and 8s. a-week with cider or beer and with cottage free 

 " in some cases." I have two reports now, the one 

 names 9s., and the other says the payments make the 

 money equal to 12s. weekly. 



In Devonshire the wagas were 8s. to IDs., and they are 

 lis. to 12s. 



In Cornwall they were 8s. to 9s., and they are 10s. to 

 12s. 



All this proves, then, that the labouring force in 

 agriculture is better paid than it used to be, and 

 that the enormous extension of machinery and of 

 steam-power lately has not been to the injury of the 

 farm labourer. 



Although, however, one is naturally glad to know 

 this, yet no one has any right to seek for the labourer 

 any more than that share which falls to him as the 

 natural result of mutual competition. It is for the na- 

 tional interest that food be produced at the least possible 

 expense ; and in the second part of my subject, which 

 refers to the most economical provision and maintenance 

 of the forces used in agriculture, the cost of the labour 

 of the farm is as much concerned as is the cost of horses 

 or the cost of steam. It is indeed the first of these to 

 which I most desire to draw attention. The economical 

 application of steam-power, and whether Mr. Fowler's 

 plough, or Mr. Smith's cultivator, or Mr. Halkett's 

 system be the cheaper, will ultimately, by large experi- 

 ence, be determined. Messrs. Howard have, I under- 

 stand, sold 70 or 80 sets of Smith's apparatus, and Mr. 

 Fowler is so busy that he can hardly keep pace with his 

 orders. Tens of thousands of acres have been this 

 autumn ploughed or worked by steam ; and it will be 

 quite within the scope of our subject if the means by 

 which this has been done should be the point on which 

 the subsequent discussion turns. It will also be in 

 keeping with the subject as announced, if the most 

 economical provision and application of horse-powers 

 should engage the principal attention ; but of all the 

 forces used in agriculture, that of the labourer himself 

 is the one to which I think we can most usefully confine 

 ourselves. 



