AGRICULTURAL POPULATION. 71 



The Foreman 



Has a house and garden (about 3 roods) rent free ; 

 He keeps three young men, for which he has 15 a 



year each, 45 ; 

 He has 6 bushels of malt for each man, 



1 quarter do. for himself, 



the best wheat at 48 s. per quarter, 



seconds do. at 32 s. &quot; 



four pigs kept in the yard with his master s. 

 He feeds and kills his own bacon, 



and has 24 in cash, and two cows kept. 



The Shepherd 



Has a house and garden (about 2 roods) rent free, 



2 quarters of wheat at 48 s. per quarter, 



2 bushels of malt, 



a cow kept, and 



22 a year in money. 



Four laborers have the following yearly wages, from May-day 

 to May-day : 



2s. 3d. per day, from May-day to Michaelmas, 



Is. 9 d. &quot; from Michaelmas to May-day, 



2s. 3d. per acre for grass and clover mowing, 



7 s. &quot; for corn cutting, 



16 bushels of wheat, at 6 s. per bushel, 



1 bushel of malt, without charge, 



1 cow kept, do. 



able and comfortable as possible ; and certainly in this respect no persons could 

 have succeeded better. Nor am I disposed to find fault with the luxuries with 

 which any gentleman or company are disposed to entertain their guests. But 

 the contrast here presented between the condition of the producer and the con 

 sumer between him whose toil creates the food and him who eats it cannot 

 fail to read a most important and instructive lesson. What its moral uses are, I 

 think, no fair and reflecting mind will be at a loss to perceive. I shall not, 

 therefore, as in ^Esop s fables, write the moral at the bottom, but I shall leave the 

 whole to my reader, without note or comment ; feeling sure that if it leads to 

 no serious reflections, there must be a melancholy obtuseness of intellect ; and 

 if it stirs no pity and no humanity within him, there is reason to fear that all 

 the springs are cut off, and the well is utterly dry. Such, alas ! are but too 

 often, though not always, the melancholy effects of luxury and prosperity. 



