26 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



mangolds from Col. Tighe's farm at Woodstock, Co. 

 Kilkenny. 



The implement makers who occupied stands were 

 Messrs Richmond and Chandler ; Thomas Bradford, 

 Manchester; John Hardley, Shide, Newport, Isle of 

 Wight, gorse-grinding machine ; John INIaguire, Dub- 

 lin; R. B. Lee and Co., Dublin ; John Twite, Dublin ; 

 Joseph Wonfor, Dublin, artificial manures; Thomas 

 Keenan and Son, Dublin ; Clayton, Shuttleworth, and 

 Co., Lincoln; Garrett and Sons, Saxmundham; James 

 Banks, Liverpool; W. and J. Ritchie, Ardee; Picksley, 

 Sims, and Co., Leigh; J. J. Mitchell, Dublin ; J. W. 

 Mitchell, Dublin ; Alfred Nixon and Co., Liverpool ; 

 David Rogerson and Co., Dublin, agents for Long's 



Specific, and blood manure ; and Joseph Booth, Dublin. 

 Mr. Macdona, Dublin, exhibited several lots of Irish 

 frieze, and Messrs. Dickson, Hogg, and Robertson, 

 Dublin, had a tastefully arranged stand, on which was 

 exhibited a collection of cereals and grasses, conifera, 

 and green-crop roots, not for competition. The hall 

 was also decorated vrith beautiful plants from the 

 Botanic Gardens of the Royal Dublin Society, and also 

 from the gardens at Marino, the seat of the Earl of 

 Charlemont. The weather although cold was dry, and 

 the hall was visited on both days by a large assemblage 

 of visitors, amongst whom were his Excellency the Lord- 

 Lieutenant, Lady Eglinton and suite. 



MPROVEMENT OF AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS. 



Sir,— I need hardly say to you thnt the condition of the 

 agricultural labourer is not any new subject of consideration 

 to myself; it in now many years ago that I first called public 

 attention to it and took a rather active part in exposing the 

 evils of that condition, suggesting remedial measures. What 

 is called philanthropy was not then the fashion of the hour ; 

 on the contrary, although the grievous evils of the labourer's 

 condition were in many matters admitted, they were consi- 

 dered dangerous to discuss openly ; we were warned of the 

 inflammable nature of this class, the great necessary exposp.re 

 of property to its malevolence and revenge. Those were the 

 daya of Swing riots, incendiaiism, machine-breakiug ; days of 

 things done by masters, Buffered and revenged by men. which 

 it would be no service now to rake out of the ashes of the 

 past. Quickly upon that disastrous season the force of public 

 opinion, a little perhaps impelled by the agency of such so- 

 called dangerous men r,s myself, and others taking the eame 

 views, compelled our legislators to look more accurately into 

 the state of this class. It was not a case for blue-books and 

 paid commissioners, but for the exercise of their own common 

 sense, common powers of observation. It was soon seen that 

 something more was wanted thaa stringent Poor Lawiam, im- 

 provement of the constabulary, more schools, more churches, 

 more moral and legislative " plant." 



Providence by the " cholera" forced consideration into 

 action iu the matter of the health, the physical and therefore 

 the social condition of the town poor. The nation awoke to 

 the belief that if there was direct indisputable connexion 

 between disease and filthy crowded dwellings, there was as 

 undeninhle a connexion between crime's early and late life, and 

 the nature of the spot on which it first drew and last parted 

 with its breath. The sanitary carapai.^u was begun in earnest; 

 some of the ablest heads, most unwearying pens, plunged at 

 once into the Augean sphere, and there they dived, digged, 

 analyzed, and rioted amid every complication of disease- 

 begetting matter and manner of life ; they tasted foul water, 

 they smelt the foulest matters, they forced the chymist and the 

 microscopist to join them in their labour; they would know 

 of what it all was composed, into what it all evolved, to what 

 gases it gave freedom, to what happy inaect infusorial life it 

 gave birth to nourish and to multiply. 



The labourer of.the country now found friends who obtained 

 a partial hearing when his sanitary condition was offered for 

 discussion. It was proved in your columns and elsewhere that 

 bis dwelling, almost as the rule, forbade every decency of life ; 



was so crowded, so constructed, that if he was healthier than 

 the town labourer it was because he was fewer hours confined 

 to the foul air of lis home. We contrasted the school 

 ^ aud church, the lessons there taught, with the one bed- 

 room and the experience to be there gained ; we aaked for 

 proof of the slightest consideration for modesty, decency, or 

 health in the avowed condition of the majority of the dwellings 

 of farm labourers ; we pointed to improved stabling, styes, 

 sheds, kennels. V/ere we so very wicked and mischievous 

 when we would have laudowners regard their men with the 

 consideration they gave to their beasts ? Perhaps I, for in- 

 stance, drove the nail home too fast, too hard ; I might have 

 been more patient, more reasonable in my strictures on this 

 subject ; if I had preached treason, written blasphemy, I could 

 scarcely have been more abused. I am to this day impenitent 

 in the matter ; for I believe I aud others so abustd have had 

 our reward. 



Facts bore down opposition; the truth defied prevaricating 

 denial; Peers and squires begauto look the matter iu the face, 

 instead of simply cursing those who had stirred it. The la- 

 bourer's improvement took, became one of the " ideas" of an 

 age of progress ; Prince and Peer stooped to study the domestic 

 economics of the peasant; free -trade made improved cultiva- 

 tion of the soil imperative. This was a matter iu which scien- 

 tific practice required the aid of complex machinery, and the 

 intelligence in the labourer necessary for its use. Emulation 

 in farming made the farm and its details open to criticism ; 

 shame compelled some, real good but late-awakencd feeling 

 others, to build better cottages. It was found the betterraost 

 men on the farm reared better families as their dwellings gave 

 them fair power to do so ; it w-as argued, meu less good would 

 become better if dealt with in a better spirit. The cause 

 prospered under high patronage, the high pressure of the now 

 thoroughly roused public opinion. I now scarce go anywhere 

 but I see new cottages built with all desirable regard for the 

 comfort and decency of the labourers who inhabit them. 

 There is room yet for much more cottage-buildiug even iu 

 fortunate district); there are j-et, alss! many districts in 

 which all the old evils are iu full force, but I very seldom meet 

 with a landholder who does not regard the question in its true 

 light ; there are few, who have auy means at their command, 

 who do not do something to improve the dwellings of their 

 poor; there are some bright examples among our territorial 

 magnates of cottage-buildiug on a most extensive scale, and 

 with ft care for the details and expense of construction above 



