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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



come gradually alarmed at the highly-coloured picture 

 their amateur friend had presented to them. Not one 

 was willing to admit the fidelity of tlie portrait. They 

 all seemed to think, on the contrary, tliat he had flat- 

 tered them most terribly. And every man straightway 

 began to tone down the very prominent features given 

 him. Mr. Belcher thought " it would be very unfor- 

 tunate if tlie idea were to go abroad from tlie Farmers' 

 Club that they expressed an opinion that the farmer's 

 life was all pleasure and all profit. (Hear, hear.) Many 

 persons had the notion that the farmer had nothing to 

 do but to stroll about the fields with a gun in winter, 

 and walk among the hay in summer. The means of 

 usefulness witliin the reach of the farmer were many, 

 and there were also many within the reach of every 

 man — not more within the reach of the farmer than the 

 merchant, tradesman, or other parties. . . . The 

 farmers were undoubtedly exposed to the loss of pro- 

 perty in a way that tradesmen and merchants were not. 

 Take, for instance, their growing crops of corn. All 

 might be most luxuriant and promising; but in an 

 hour, from one of tliose awful and devastating storms 

 of hail which were notunfrequent in this country, all, 

 or the greater part, might be swept away, and ruin 

 look the farmer in the face. However, in recent years, 

 means were placed within the reach of the farmers to 

 save themselves from losses in this way, and lie could 

 not but recommend his friends and neighbours to do 

 what he and many others had done — insure their crops 

 against damage by hail. The rates were trifling, and 

 he was sure that their friend, Mr. James Pike, the agent 

 to the Royal Farmei's' Hail Insurance Company, whom 

 he was happy to see present — would be most ready to 

 asssist farmers in availing themselves of the advantages 



which that institution offered. In reference to the sub- 

 ject of tlie improvement of agricultural labourers, it 

 was one tliat demanded attention, and he hoped for the 

 time when every owner of an estate would bo deter- 

 mined to have such cottages only as would ensure the 

 comfort of, and promote decency among, the labouring 

 classes." 



And then Mr. Belcher took Mr. Bourn with his 

 own weapons, and quoted Cowper on the other side ; 

 while the Chairman (Mr. Hicks) brought the business 

 of the evening to a close, with a few remarks that went 

 to say, " no set of men employed so much money, 

 and had so little reward for their toil and care, as the 

 farmers." 



There are, we are afraid, a good many people too 

 apt to think with Mr. Boura as to the realities of a 

 farmer's life -that it is a delightful do-nothing-but- 

 what-you-like sort of business, with lots of duties and 

 no rights, and that home-cured bacon is a very good 

 thing for breakfast. For our own part we are quite 

 convinced that farming is becoming every day more of 

 a business, and that no man leads a more useful life 

 than the farmer does. We are certainly losing a little 

 of the poetical association : — the hawthorn hedge 

 and the tegmine fagi are coming to be gra- 

 dually lopped of their fair proportions. Even the 

 home-made comforts are now by no means a rule. We 

 were at the house of a famous farmer not long since, 

 whose home-made bread came from the baker's, and 

 his glass of beer from Guinness's agent. 



" Tlie Farmer's Life and Duties" will bear some 

 further discussion another day. Say with a little more 

 of the steam engine, and a little less of Kirke Wliite 

 and Co. for the material. 



'THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE DWELLINGS AND DOMESTIC 

 CONDITION OF AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS." 



In the last published of our articles on ' ' Agricul- 

 tural Education", we adverted to an association in 

 Scotland having for its object the furthering of the 

 above important movement ; and promised in a future 

 article to glance at its constitution, aims, and the prac- 

 tical results which have been attained after a three 

 years' existence and labour : that promise we now pro- 

 pose to redeem. 



In our articles above alluded to, we ventured pretty 

 fully to press upon the attention of our readers the im- 

 portance of the improvement of the dwelling-places of 

 agricultural labourers, convinced that in so doing we 

 were pointing out a powerful agent for greatly promoting 

 the physical no less than the moral condition of their 

 inhabitants. A belief in this great truth formed the 

 actuating motive of the promoters of the Association, 

 comprising all the wealthy and influential noblemen and 

 gentlemen of Scotland, and is well and clearly stated 

 in the " resolutions" proposed at its first meeting, and 

 • which form the basis on which the Association grounds 

 its claims for support, alike on the philanthropic land- 



lord anxious for the moral elevation of his tenantry, 

 and of him who is careful only to get the most work 

 out of his workpeople, the " living tools" of his farms. 

 These resolutions, suggestive as they assuredly are of 

 practical truths, we here give : (1) " That in the 

 opinion of this meeting no material improvement in the 

 character and habits of the labouring population can be 

 expected, unless they are supplied with sufficient house- 

 room, and means of domestic comfort and decency ; 

 and that the condition of the agricultural labourers in 

 those respects is lamentably deficient throughout a great 

 part of Scotland." (2) " That it is the especial duty, as 

 well as the interest of the owners and occupiers of land, 

 to remedy this defect, and to provide adequate accom- 

 modation for their farm labourers ; and that a strict 

 fulfilment of this duty would not only tend to maintain 

 the physical powers of the workman in fuller efficiency 

 than at present, but would encourage him in the culti- 

 vation of superior habits, and remove one of the 

 acknowledged sources of immorality and vice in the 

 rural districts." (3) " That there is reason to believe that 



