On employing the Poor in Parish tVorkhouses , 359 



is not expensive, perhaps there is no general employment so 

 proper for the workhouse poor, who are least capable, as 

 that of picking oakum. This employment can be performed 

 by the blind, the lan)e, and the infirm, by the superannuated, 

 and by children. A few years ago, on visiting the work- 

 house or spinhouse at Amsterdam, (which is under excel- 

 lent management,) I found that spinning, weaving, and 

 picking oakum, were the principal employments carried on 

 there. Picking oakum is a principal part of the cniploy- 

 meut of the poor in the parish workhouses at York. I wa3 

 informed there that they give Qs. per hundred weight, or 

 1 5. per stone, for old ropes, and sell the oakum for 2s. per 

 stone; and that a man can pick a stone a day. Suppose 

 the average earnings amounted but to Sd. or 9 of. a day, per- 

 haps there is no business in which the infirm workhouse 

 poor can be so beneficially employed. 



The difference in local situations should be particularly 

 attended to. The chccipness and ease with which materials 

 can be procured, and ready demand for the produce, or for 

 that sort of labour which can be performed by persons so 

 situated, will generally determine the most profitable man- 

 ner in which the poor in workhouses can be employed. 

 For example: Bath is the resort of a great deal of genteel 

 company : many thousand pounds a year, it is said, are 

 paid there for washing, most of which is performed at 

 small houses inconvenient for the purpose. At Giasaow, I 

 have seen a public washhouse, where, by the saving of fncl 

 and superior conveniences, the business can be performed at 

 less than half the expense which it costs at private houses. 

 Such an appendage may easily be added to a parish work- 

 house. Under a steady careful matron, washing would at 

 Eaih prove a very beneficial and proper employment for the 

 women, and would prepare the girls for making good ser- 

 vants. 



I am no advocate for workhouses in country parishes, 

 having frctjuently seen their mismanagement and ill efTects. 

 But in such situations, part of the workhouse poor may 

 occasionally be of some use in dibbling, setting, weeding, 

 band-hoeing, liayniaking, harvesting, stonc-jjicking, or re- 

 pairing 



