124 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



it is quite impossible, therefore, in what is left of the time 

 given me, to do justice to the department of my paper con- 

 nected with the condition of the labourer on the conti- 

 nent. I can, therefore, only glance at one or two points 

 in connection with it. The system of small farms (Ic 

 petite culture) so generally prevalent throughout the conti- 

 nent, markedly so in France and Belgium, induces a con- 

 dition of things vastly different from that prevalent in this 

 country; and hence we find that the' class of men who hire 

 themselves out for farm labour is not in any way so impor- 

 tant as the class with us. Farm labourers are not nume- 

 rous, as large farmers requiring their services are anything 

 but numerous themselves. Their place is taken by the 

 body of peasant proprietors, who may be said, in general 

 terms, to represent our agricultural-labourer class. I have 

 travelled pretty extensively on the Continent, and I con- 

 fess to having formed a very favourable opinion as to the 

 condition of the agriculturists of the lower ranks. Time 

 will only permit me however to glance at their condition in 

 Belgium ; more especially that part of it — Flanders — where 

 cultivation stands so deservedly high. Wages are not 

 great ; a farmer in the neighbourhood of Courtrai, who 

 farmed about ninety acres, told me that he gave his, 

 labourers 67 centimes a day, that is about 7d. per day, 

 with an ample supply of provision — meat, bread 

 and soup. Fi'om a franc to a fi-anc and a quarter 

 may be stated perhaps as the average without provisions. 

 Nearly all the labourers have small plots of ground, which, 

 they have time to cultivate, and which they do with tlie 

 most pains-taking care. That the condition of the la- 

 bourer is in every way a comfortable one, even a cm-sory 

 investigation will easily show. The clothing is wonder- 

 fully good, far above — especially in the linen department — 

 that of our labourers. In the districts where the small 

 plots of land are cultivated by the present proprietors 

 pleasant signs of personal and household comfort abound 

 everywhere. The village-streets through which one passes 

 show little of the squahd untidiness which too often 

 greets the eye of the traveller in this country ; and seldom 

 is he offended with the sight of children bouncing about 

 in all the Arab freedom of dirt and rags which character- 

 izes too many of the rising youths of our own villages. 

 Nor, let me add — which possibly is one grand reason of all 

 this comfort — do you see the drunkard staggeiing tlu-ough 

 the streets in the hopelessness of confirmed degradation. 

 The cottages are small, and scantily furnished, according 

 to our ideas of furnishing; but a scrupulous cleanliness 

 atones for this, and adds a charm which abundance of fur- 

 nished wealth without it would not give. The personal 

 dress of both sexes gives you the idea of great comfort, 

 although in the materials employed you have no evidence 

 of the abundance of money. It simply tells of small funds 

 laid out to highest economical advantage, than which 

 nothing I conceive is more satisfactory in peasant life. 

 Not to tire you with opinions of my own, I give you tliose 

 of an authority who has had ample opportunities of studying 

 the manners and customs of the Belgian peasantry — 

 opinions which a somewhat lengthened sojourn in the 

 principal districts enables me fully to endorse. " The 

 labour of the field," he says, " the management of the 

 cattle, the preparation of manure, the regulating the 

 rotation of the crops, and the necessity of carrying 

 a certain portion of the produce to market, call for 

 the constant exercise of industry, skill, and fore- 

 sight among the Belgian peasant-farmers ; and to those 

 qualities they add a rigid economy, habitual sobriety, and 

 a contented spirit, which finds its chief gi'atification be- 

 neath the domestic roof, from which the father of the 

 famUy rarely wanders in search of excitement abroad. It 

 was most gratifying to observe the comfort displayed in 

 the whole economy of the households of those small culti- 

 vators, in the respectability in which they lived. . . . 

 The provident habits of these small farmers enable them 

 to maintain a high standard of comfort. Their marriages 

 are not contracted so earlj as in Ireland, and the conse- 

 quent struggle for subsistence among their offspring does 

 not exist. . . , The Belgian peasant-farmer is not 



very different from the 'small Irish occupant as regards 

 his position in society, but he is in a far better condition 

 as regards the comforts and conveniencies of life ; and the 

 causes of this difference are to be found in the more skilful 

 system of culture pui-sued by the six-acre farmers of Bel- 

 gium, in the rigid economy which characterises them as a 

 class, and in the persevering industry, providence, and 

 thought which enables them to adjust their limited re- 

 sources to their wants." Another authority states " There 

 is an appearance of comfort in these little farms which 

 is very pleasing. Hard work, instead of being here 

 thought an evil or a hardship, is thought essential to the 

 health and comfort of the individual. The children are 

 brought up in industry ; it is interwoven with all their as- 

 sociations ; and when the young men marry, they find 

 wives who are bronght up in the same manner, and are 

 useful helpmates to them. . . . There are many 

 small proprietors who have risen slowly by the labour of 

 their own hands ; and their habitations show, by their ex- 

 treme neatness, and the care taken of everything about 

 them, that they feel a pride in enjoying the just reward of 

 honest industry." 



In conclusion I will here take the opportitnity t^o 

 thank those gentlemen, who — with a fulness of detail 

 worthy of the highest praise — have corresponded with 

 me on the subject of my paper. For obvious reasons 

 I do not append a list of their names; suffice it to 

 say, that they are all gentlemen, who from their prac- 

 tical position are entitled to be looked upon as authori- 

 ties ; many of tliem have reputations, world-wide in the 

 annals of agriculture ; and I can only regret that time has 

 not permitted me to give their communications in cxteyiso. 

 Abounding as they do in practical information, and in the 

 suggestinveess of their details, their publication in this 

 form would have been highly valuable. 



Mr. J. Beadshaw (Knowle, Guildford) said the subject 

 which had been introduced that evening was, as they must 

 all feel, one well deserving of discussion. The improve- 

 ment of the agricultural labourer of this country was sur- 

 rounded with difficulties. In the first place, let them look 

 at the labourer's cottage : that must be made part and 

 parcel of the land. How could a man in the receipt of 

 only lis. or l!is. a week afl'ord to pay more than Is. or 

 Is. Gd. a week for rent? whereas many a man in that posi- 

 tion was now called upon for 2s. Cd. or 3s. The cost of 

 building was a point on which he had bestowed great 

 attention. In his opinion it was hardly possible to erect 

 two cottages, with three rooms each, for less than i£'240 ; 

 and how, then, could they be raised, except at the expense 

 of the landlord ? He had not himself a single cottage let 

 at more than Is. per week ; but there were cottages in his 

 neighbourhood — poor, paltry things they were — let at 2s. 

 6d. As regarded education, he was happy to be able to 

 testify that in many agricultural districts the attention 

 which was now being paid to education, and the progress now 

 being made in it, were most satisfactory — quite equal, in 

 fact, to anything of the kind that was seen in the manufac- 

 turing districts. Allusion had been made by Mr. Burn to 

 the fact of a labourer in Belgium receiving his 70 centimes 

 per day, besides an ample supply of provisions. The only 

 two countries on the continent, that he was aware of, 

 where the cultivation of land in small holdings was earned 

 on successfully, were Belgium and Lombardy. And why 

 was the system successful in those countries ? Because 

 the people were favoured with a good climate aud a light 

 soil of a pecular kind (Hear, hear). He knew those coun- 

 tries well, and had examined their soil for himself. With 

 respect to France, he would observe that in 1^.58 he went 

 over a farm situated about six miles on the other side of 

 Verseilles, and there he learned that the wages of labour — 

 he would not express any opinion as to the comparative 

 value — were quite equal to those paid in many parts of 

 this country ; they amounted to about 12 francs a week. 

 He quite agreed with Mr. Burn that the elevation of the 

 labourer in the social scale could not be accomplished 

 without the agency of steam cultivation (Hear, hear). 

 Farmers had now to compete with all the world. They 

 could not afford, tlierefore, to increase the rate of wages 

 unless they could manage to produce at a cheaper rate, and 

 this he was firmly conraiced could only be done by means 

 of the application of steam to the enUi\ntion of the soil 



