138 ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL LABOURER. 



after 109 acres ; and in 1903 a further 34 acres. These 

 177 acres enabled 112 men to obtain a livelihood as market 

 gardeners. No less than twenty-six horses were employed 

 in ploughing, carting, and carrying the produce to Birming- 

 ham and bringing back manure for the land. All this was 

 done in spite of the continued opposition of the chief land- 

 owner, and to-day (1919), I believe the Parish Council of 

 Belbroughton controls no less than 500 acres. 



The working men of Belbroughton did certainly " grow 

 their own poor rate " in a manner which would have amazed 

 John Stuart Mill, had he lived to see how they lifted them- 

 selves from pauperism to comparative independence. 

 Judging by the statistics of pauperism in the county of 

 Oxfordshire, which was one of the lowest paid counties 

 in England, and one of the highest in the return for allot- 

 ments, Mill's contention might have seemed to hold good ; 

 but allotments were equally as popular in Norfolk, and 

 though wages were low in that county they were not 

 lower than some other eastern and southern counties and 

 one cannot say that the men of Norfolk have ever been 

 backward in the fight for higher wages or shown a spirit 

 of subservience. Nor was meekness characteristic of the 

 fenland districts where wages were a little higher and 

 allotments as numerous as in any other district in England. 



To point to the absence of what is technically known as 

 allotments in the northern counties where wages we/e 

 highest, is no argument in support of Mill's theory ; for 

 in the north cow-pasturage for the hind or a potato patch in 

 the ploughed field was quite a common allowance as a 

 supplement to wages. Moreover town workmen who enjoy 

 much higher wages than agricultural workers, have always 

 shown a greater desire for allotments than the agricultural 

 labourer, who finds no recreation in repeating after tea 

 what he has been doing all day long. 



Where men are regularly employed it is the bent back of 

 the woman who has to bear the burden of allotment tillage, 

 especially at planting and harvesting, when the man's 

 services are required in his master's fields. Socially, rather 

 than economically, there is much to be said against allot- 



