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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



down the wages in this county at 7s. per week ! 

 Why their own return shows that the cash pay- 

 ments are from Ss. to 10s. But on this testimony 

 the Bath and West of England Society awarded 

 them the prize, thus giving an official stamp to 

 the gross misrepresentation that had been made. 

 I need not tell you that this is the reason why the 

 funds do not flow in so quickly to the exchequer 

 for the forthcoming meeting at Dorchester. I can 

 only say that if they have no better use for their 

 money than to publish such statements as these, I 

 consider it would be better in my own pocket. I 

 will now conclude, thanking you for the attention 

 with which you have listened to me, by proposing 

 the following resolutions : — 



1. It is the opinion of this club that more good 

 cottages in this neighbourhood are required for the 

 proper accommodation of the labourers. 



2. That the statements of Messrs. Spinder 

 and Isaac in their essay, as published by the Bath 

 and West of England Society, so far as regards 

 the wages of the agricultural labourer of the county 

 of Dorset, are incorrect and without foundation. 



3. That the wages of good labourers in this 

 county are paid partly in money and a variety of 

 perquisites, but cannot be of less value than 12s. 

 per week. 



(Mr. Fowler was frequently applauded during his 

 address, and sat down amid general acclamation). 

 Mr. H. FooKES hoped that after the able 

 manner in which Mr. Fowler had treated this sub- 

 ject, the stigma under which the county had been 

 lying would be removed. Living as he did side by 

 side with that gentleman, he could fully bear out 

 the correctness of the statement respecting the 

 wages he gave. His (Mr. Fookes') men had pe- 

 cuniarily the same advantages, and he found there 

 was very little difference in the wages he gave his 

 shepherds, carter, and labourers, from what had 

 been stated by Mr. Fowler. After giving parti- 

 culars in proof of this, he also corroborated the 

 statement as to young able-bodied men becoming 

 scarce, and expressed his belief that this would 

 not be the case if they could get proper cottage 

 accommodation. He had not a yearly labourer on 

 his farm, but always "gave a week or took a week." 

 In the lower part of the county he thought the 

 Dorchester Candlemas hiring fair was a great curse. 

 (Hear, hear). He knew, on good authority, that 

 there were a certain class of labourers that could 

 not be happy unless they went to a fair yearly, to try 

 and get a better place. One farmer, last fail", 

 agreed with six-and-twenty labourers, and if so 

 that number must have left their places. (Mr. Lock 

 said the fair had sprung up within the last forty 

 years). Candlemas, too, was the worst time that 

 they could change their shepherds, as the lambs 

 were just coming in, and it was most inconvenient. 

 He had never hired a labourer at the Candlemas 

 fair in his life. Mr. Fowler had not touched upon 

 one subject connected with wages, which was the 

 crime of the county. He was proud to say that if 

 they looked at the statistics of crime, it would be 

 found that Dorsetshire was lowest on the list. He 

 thought this would prove that their labourers were 

 tolerably well off, because if labour was badly paid 

 there would be more crime committed. He fully 



coincided with the general remarks of Mr. Fowler, 

 and hoped they would prove this evening that the 

 labourer in the county of Dorset was as well paid 

 and as happy as in any other county in England. 



Mr. G. Harding was sure everyone must feel 

 convinced that Mr. Fowler had taken a vast deal 

 of trouble to give an impartial statement of the rate 

 of wages in this county. He then offered a few 

 remarks on the injurious effect which the encour- 

 agement of emigration had upon the home-labour 

 market by taking away the best families that could 

 be found, and contended that the value of the land 

 itself depended upon the supply of hands they 

 could get to work it, and these they could not 

 expect without proper cottage accommodation. It 

 was thus very bad policy for a landlord to lessen 

 the number of cottages on his farm. As to the 

 rate of wages, Mr. Fowler had plainly shown that 

 the statements made in the prize essay of the Bath 

 and West of England Society were most incorrect; 

 but he thought neither the wages of the maltster 

 or the foreman should have been taken into consi- 

 deration. However, enough had been proved to 

 show that the county was not deserving of the 

 stigma cast upon it — that the farmers were almost 

 the most illiberal towards their labourers of any in 

 the kingdom. He had always seen the advantages 

 to the labourers of the perquisites ; but ever since 

 he had been in the county he had followed the 

 system of money payment, both for the sake of his 

 own credit and for the sake of economy. He was 

 quite sure it would not detract from Mr. Fowler's 

 statement when he said money-payments were the 

 most economical, besides which it saved the credit 

 of having it said his labourers only received 7s. per 

 week. He considered that great injustice had been 

 done the county by publishing a statement that 

 could not be borne out, and regretted that it should 

 have occurred to operate against the support of 

 what they were taught to consider such a useful 

 society as that which was about to meet at Dor- 

 chester this year. They were, however, justified 

 in passing a vote of censure on those who had so 

 recklessly maligned them, and he considered Mr. 

 Fowler was entitled to their warmest thanks for 

 having dealt with the subject in such a satisfactory 

 manner. 



Mr. H. Richards said he could only rise to 

 confirm almost everything Mr. Fowler had stated. 

 He dealt in what the world called the " truck 

 system," but he found it was so far valued by the 

 labourer, that when a young man got married he 

 often said, " Won't you let me have grist ?" Now 

 if they got less than their money's worth they 

 would not ask for it. After touching upon the 

 system of allowing the men ale at harvest time, 

 which he did not think could be altered to give sa- 

 tisfaction, he observed that he was not one of those 

 who went to the hiring fair. His men were like 

 the gate posts, and many of them had been there 

 longer than he had. With regard to cottages he 

 thought landlords took a wrong view in lessening 

 the accommodation, in order not to get, as they 

 considered, too much labour in the parish. If it 

 was not provided by the landowner, it was in some 

 measure by speculators, who built miserable little 

 cottages, for which they exacted a high rent, col- 



