THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



449 



lecting the inoney monthly, and serving a monthly 

 notice to quit, so that if the money were not paid 

 the family had to leave. That system prevailed in 

 his parish ; but he hoped a better state of things 

 was springing up, as the heir apparent was taking 

 a great interest in the matter, though he thought 

 there was danger in going beyond the mark and 

 building too expensive places. As to emigration, 

 he was once asked by a clergyman to give a sub- 

 scription for such an object, and he replied, " If 

 you will let me select the men, I will readily give 

 my subscription ; but here you are sending away 

 the very best parent stock, leaving behind the lazy, 

 the drunkard, and the imbecile." Although a cot- 

 tage under the miserable system he had been 

 speaking of would come to about £3 ISs. a-year, 

 yet in estimating the advantages to the tenant he 

 did not think they should reckon above Is. per 

 week, not but that the farmer would be ready to 

 give £5 a-year if he could have as many good cot- 

 tages as he wanted. He also thought that the 

 farmer should have the control of the cottages for 

 his labourers. When he had a good labourer no- 

 thing would be more likely to enable him to keep 

 him than having a good cottage for his accommo- 

 dation. 



Mr. J. Ford, jun., said he had travelled through 

 many paits of the country, and he never saw that 

 labourers were better fed and better clothed than 

 they were in Dorset. He paid his men in money, 

 and thought it would be better if all did so. On 

 looking through his labour book he found they 

 averaged about 12s. per week, and he had not a 

 man in his employ but what got 9s. or 10s. a-week. 

 If he could have more cottages than he had it would 

 be a great advantage. Young men when they got 

 married sometimes went to live in the back streets 

 of a town, such as Blandford, and they were very 

 little use to a farmer afterwards. 



Mr. G. Summers made a few complimentary 

 allusions to the able and impartial manner in which 

 Mr. Fowler had treated the subject, and the im- 

 portant testimony he had brought to bear upon it 

 from gentlemen they knew to be of high standmg 

 in the county, though it was not likely that 

 they paid higher wages than their neighbours. 

 When he saw Mr. Saunders' statement he thought 

 it rather high, but on looking over his accounts it 

 was about the same as his own. As to education, 

 he thought it would be better if they had more 

 schoolmasters than mistresses, because the former 

 had greater influence over the boys ; and he also 

 thought a great deal of good might be done by the 

 establishment of evening classes, which would keep 

 the young men from idleness and evil speaking. It 

 was desirable the labourers should have good cot- 

 tages, but it was also necessary to attend to their 

 habits as well as their accommodation. With 

 respect to wages, he considered it a bad plan to pay 

 all men alike, and thought they should begin a 

 different system and pay a man according to what 

 he earned. He believed the advantages of the agri- 

 cultural labourer in this county were very great, 

 and hoped their proceedings this evening would go 

 foi'th to contradict the unfounded statements that 

 had been made with respect to their position. 



Mr. Joel Roper said he had made a calculation 



of what a few of his best men received. His 

 hedger, independent of fuel, grist, a cottage at 6d. 

 a-week, and potato ground which was dunged for 

 him, had had at the rate of 13s. 7}d. a-week. 

 Another, independent of advantages, got, on an 

 average, I7s.6^d. per week ; and another 1 '2s. O^d.; 

 while several young men, besides grist and potato 

 ground, averaged about 9s. 9d. If they looked 

 into the village church on a Sunday, they would 

 see there was not that poverty which was repre- 

 sented in the Bath and West of England Society's 

 Journal. He had taken the trouble to select a list 

 of the wages paid in many counties from Morton's 

 Encyclopaedia of Agriculture, which showed that 

 this county was not in comparison so bad as was 

 represented. In Yorkshire wages were from 10s. 

 to 12s. weekly, with cottage rent 50s. to GOs. a- 

 year. In Derbyshire, wages 10s.; and rent £3 to 

 £5. In Cheshire, wages 8s. or 9s.; and rent, £4. 

 In North Lincolnshire, wages 10s. to 12s.; and 

 rent, £4 and even £6. In South Lincolnshire, 

 wages 9s. to 10s. In Norfolk and Suffolk, wages 

 about 8s. ; and rent 50s. to 70s. In Worcester- 

 shire, wages 7s. to 8s.; and here the custom pre- 

 vails of giving beer or cider, about half-a-gallon a- 

 day. In Herefordshire, wages 7s. to 8s., with 

 cider. In Gloucestershire, wages 7s. to 10s., and 

 from two to three quarts of beer. In Essex, wages 

 8s. to 10s. In Surrey and Kent, wages 9s. to 10s. 

 In Sussex, wages 8s. to 10s. Mr. Roper, in reply 

 to Mr. Atkinson, stated that he gleaned these par- 

 ticulars from the edition published about three 

 years since. He thought Dorset would well stand 

 a comparison, particularly when they considered 

 that cottage rent was, in many instances, so much 

 more reasonable in this county. 



The Chairman, after complimenting Mr. Fowler 

 on his treatment of the subject, observed that some 

 allusion had been made to education. Now, he 

 was not one who objected to the education of the 

 poor m.an, but he thought it ought to be based on 

 a right foundation. In the present day he was 

 afraid, instead of having an education useful to 

 them, it was an injury, especially the females, who 

 were taught crochet and net work, and such 

 things; but when theybecame mothers, they did not 

 know how to mend a stocking, and became a drag 

 upon a man instead of a help to him. As to 

 cottage accommodation, it was almost useless to 

 teach morality at school if it were untaught at 

 home. He recollected that in a pamphlet written 

 by a gentleman on this subject, Stourpaine was 

 held up as being one of the worst places in the 

 county, and some persons might think Lord 

 Rivers was to blame. But his lordship had no 

 power over the objectionable cottages which 

 were built on small freehold or lifehold land, 

 without any outlet except that into the street. 

 He v/as, however, happy to say Lord Rivers 

 was setting a good example in that neighbour- 

 hood, by building cottages with every con- 

 venience the poor man could require. He 

 thought the present law of settlement ought to be 

 altered, as that in many instances caused landlords 

 to refrain from building, for fear of increasing the 

 poor-rates. As to wages, his shepherd had 8s. per 

 week and perquisites which brought it up to about 



