4on 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



poses to serve, viz. : to extol agriculture aad its patrous i he kas said so much) are our best and constant cus- 

 before a " town's population," and to ridicule it before j tomers. With regard to our being indebted to a clergy- 



the members of this and other agricultural societies. 

 Mr. Sidney told us that he had only just entered the 

 room ; yet the time had arrived when he must make his 

 speech. I regret this, and the more so, as his re- 

 marks did not in any way apply to the discussion. In- 

 deed he has told us that we are dependent upon every- 

 body, and that nobody is dependent upon us. I would 

 for the moment inform him, that our island was once a 

 common waste, and that now the foreigners (of whom 



man for the invention of the reaping-machine, I can 

 only say that the reaping-machine was even used in the 

 time of the Romans ; certainly, if we judge from the 

 drawing, it formed but a rude implement, yet sufficient 

 for the day (cheers). 



Thanks were then voted to Mr. Smith and the Chair- 

 man respectively, and with these acknowledgments the 

 proceedings terminated. 



THE CONDITION OF THE AGRICULTURAL LABOURER. 



The progressive improvement by which the course of 

 agriculture has been marked during the last fifty years 

 is beginning to be a stale subject ; not because those 

 interested in it are flagging in their efforts or zeal, or 

 that the accumulating mass of useful innovations already 

 introduced has exhausted the ingenuity of those with 

 whom they have originated ; but because, on the con- 

 trary, the modern system of husbandry, like that of 

 every other branch of national industry, has become a 

 much more serious and absorbing business than for- 

 merly ; so that the farmer has now so much to do that 

 he has less time to talk about it. Competition in any 

 branch of business is a wonderful stimulant, and brings 

 into exercise a mental energy and power in many an 

 individual, who is as much astonished as his neighbours 

 at the unexpected development. 



Perhaps in no department of farming operations has 

 improvement been more palpable or more sedulously 

 carried out than in the care and attention bestowed 

 upon the different races of animals, for which lofty and 

 well-ventilated comfortable apartments are built, abun- 

 dance of rich food provided, cleanliness and health 

 sedulously promoted, and every means resorted to, to 

 attain the great object of the farmer's solicitude — a 

 speedy preparation of the animals for the butcher, and 

 thus an early realization of the profits of the transaction. 



But whilst such incredible pains are taken to provide 

 for the well-being and comfort of the superior animals, 

 the quadrupeds of the farm — whilst the cattle, the 

 sheep, and even the pigs, are thus anxiously cared for 

 and plentifully fed, how is it with the 6i/jefZ race?— if 

 we may be allowed /or once, by way of illustration, to 

 use so mean and low a term in speaking of the agricul- 

 tural labourers of England. In more respectful lan- 

 guage, if the irrational animals arc thus become the 

 objects of the farmers' attention, surely the welfare of 

 those beings on whose efforts they depend for tlicir 

 prosperity, and who possess powers and faculties infi- 

 nitely superior to those of the fortunate brutes to whose 

 welfare they arc employed to cater, is entitled to the 

 first consideration. In point of ability to provide for 

 their own comfort and welfare the two classes — the 

 rational and the irrational — stand upon equal terms; 

 for assuredly the low wages of the agricultural labourer 

 render it impossible for him to do more than provide 

 food and raiment for himself and those dependent upon 



him, and scantily enough of these. For education, 

 house accommodation, and sanitary arrangements, he 

 must depend on his employer, the farmer, or on the 

 landlord. His moral and intellectual advancement, 

 which arc closely connected with those objects, it is 

 utterly out of his power to provide for, or even to 

 occupy his mind upon, so helpless and impotent does 

 his normal condition of poverty render him. 



We have frequently referred to this subject in our 

 columns, and have again and again urged ujion the 

 farmers the consideration that it is not only their duty 

 but their interest to attend thereto, and to provide such 

 accommodation for their labourers as shall enable them 

 to bring up their families in decency and re«pectability. 

 In proportion as this object is pursued, and the moral 

 and physical welfare of the labourer promoted, are the 

 incentives to vice and crime diminished, and the self- 

 respect of the labourer instilled into his mind. These 

 results will assuredly be accompau'ed with a diminution 

 of crime and pauperism, especially illegitimacy, now so 

 prevalent amongst that class, the inevitable result of 

 that mingling of the sexes of a family in the inadequate 

 dwellings they are compelled to inhabit. This is abun- 

 dantly proved in a pamphlet recently put into our 

 hands,* and which has led us again to take up the 

 subject. The author shows, beyond a doubt, that it is 

 " the sbujle bedchamber in the two-roomed cottage'* 

 that is working this destruction of the moral sense of 

 the agricultural classes, leading to illicit intercourse of 

 the most painful and shameful kind, in which the ties 

 of blood arc too frequently disregarded. 



Quoting from a letter in the Farmer's Magazine for 

 October, 18iJ0, the writer shows that it is chiefly the 

 prejudices of the farmers that stand in the way of any 

 improvement in the condition of their labourers; and 

 that whilst seeking to raise their own children into the 

 classes above Ihem by education, they resolve to keep 

 down the moral and intellectual character of their 

 labourers, lest they too should aspire to a like elevation, 

 "There are others," says the writer, " who give their 

 own children the benefit of the best education they can 



* An Address upou the Condition of the Agricultural 

 Labourer. By Henry Tucker. Delivered nt the Annual Din- 

 ner of the Farringdon Agricultural Library, on the 25th of 

 November, 1858. £. M. Atkins, Esq., in the chair. Loudon t 

 Longman and Co. Farriugdon : T. Knapp. 



