50 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



In the season of harvest, immense numbers of Irish come over 

 to assist in the labor, and this presents almost the only oppor 

 tunity which they have, in the course of the year, of earning a 

 little money to pay the rent of their cabins and potato patches. 

 Nothing can exceed the destitution and squalidness in which they 

 are seen starved, ragged, and dirty beyond all description, with 

 the tatters hanging about them like a few remaining feathers 

 upon a plucked goose. At their first coming, they are compara 

 tively feeble and inefficient ; but after a week s comfortable 

 feeding, they recover strength, increasing some pounds in weight, 

 and, if they are allowed to perform their work by the piece, they 

 accomplish a great deal. 



I found in one case on two farms which, though under two 

 tenants, might be considered as a joint concern more than four 

 hundred laborers employed during the harvests, a large proportion 

 of whom were women, but not exclusively Irish. The average 

 wages paid the men in this case was one shilling sterling (or 

 twenty-four cents) per day and their food, which was estimated 

 at about ninepenoe (or about eighteen cents) per day. Their 

 living consisted of oatmeal-porridge and a small quantity of sour 

 milk or buttermilk for breakfast ; a pound of wheaten bread, 

 and a pint and a half of beer at dinner ; and at night, a supper 

 resembling the breakfast, or twopence in money in lieu of it. I 

 was curious to know how so many people were lodged at night. 

 In some cases, they throw themselves down under the stacks, or 

 upon some straw in the sheds, or out-buildings of the farm ; but 

 in the case to which I refer above, I was shown into the cattle- 

 stalls and stables, the floors of which were littered with straw 

 and here the me-n s coats, and the women s caps and bonnets, upon 

 the walls, indicated that it was occupied by both parties promis 

 cuously. This was indeed the fact. Each person, as far as 

 possible, was supplied with a blanket ; and these were the whole 

 accommodations and the whole support. This was not a singular 

 instance. I am unwilling to make any comments upon such 

 facts as these. They speak for themselves. They are matters 

 of general custom, and seemed to excite no attention. I do not. 

 refer to them as matter of reproach to the employers, who were 

 persons of respectable character and condition, and whose fami 

 lies were distinguished for their refinement. But it presents one 

 among many instances in which habit and custom reconcile us 

 to maay things which would otherwise offend us ; and lead us 



