connected with Mines. 437 



Having mentioned the Lambton estate, I should be doing it 

 very great injustice did 1 convey the idea that the short-comings 

 in the management of mining farms spoken of existed there. 

 On the contrary, the mining farms there will bear a comparison 

 with the best-managed farms in this country. They are and have 

 been for a long time under the able management of a veteran 

 improver and patron of agriculture. 



Milk is an article greatly in demand in a populous mining 

 neighbourhood ; but the keeping of cows is not found to be so 

 serviceable an auxiliary to the production of horse-food as the 

 sheep and bullock feeding. Cows are heavy consumers of hay 

 and other produce, and their manure is not of the highest value. 

 Besides, dairy-farming requires the constant superintendence of 

 the principal, and the management of mining-farms is generally 

 entrusted to servants, who, however dutiful they may be, have not 

 the same interest in keeping all the machinery in motion as the 

 small farmer and his wife have. It is, however, the duty of 

 owners of mines to encourage dairy-farming, though they may 

 not be able to practise it themselves. 



I cannot see how farming could be carried on more for the 

 benefit of the miners than by the system I have just advocated. 

 To cater any further for their wants would perhaps lead to the 

 much-condemned truck system. The best plan is to pay the 

 men full current value for their labour in cash, and allow them 

 to buy agricultural as well as other produce in the cheapest or 

 any market they please. I see no way to give them any more 

 direct interest or privilege in land other than the general public 

 (except in providing thein with gardens), unless it be by giving 

 them the advantage of the " Limited Liability Act " and sell 

 them shares not only in the mines but in the mining-farms as 

 well. I have heard of this experiment being tried, but I cannot 

 speak either of its success or failure. Time will prove its expe- 

 diency or otherwise. 



The Assignment of Allotments for Minees. 



The garden is the proper farm for the miner or other labourer, 

 and by cultivating it with his own hands he is improved not only 

 physically but morally. In the mining districts of the north of 

 England the miners have generally a house and garden provided 

 for them by their employers ; but the allotment system, properly 

 so called, viz., letting a piece of land at a fixed rental, does not 

 obtain amongst any class of miners so far as I am aware. The 

 gardens to which I have alluded, if they do not lie close to the 

 house, are within as easy distances as circumstances will admit 

 of. No money rental is paid for them, but along with the cottages 

 they form a part of the stipulation for the miner's labour. The 



