194 REW, DORSET 



GENERAL AGRICULTURAL CONDITIONS 

 OF THE DISTRICT. 



The hill farms were large, averaging about 500 

 acres, and were chiefly barley and sheep before the 

 times of agricultural depression. There is a general 

 complaint now that the larger farms cannot be 

 profitably farmed owing to the want of capital ; 

 hence there is a tendency to reduce the size of 

 holdings, 500 acres being cut into 200 and 300 acre 

 farms. Smaller men work them themselves, seed 

 down, and employ less labour ; hence a great 

 decrease in the number of sheep kept. There is a 

 general opinion that there is less produce as well as 

 less labour on the farms that have been cut up. 



Hence the demand for agricultural labour does 

 not seem to exceed the supply in the neighbour- 

 hood. 



The larger farms let at an average of 10s., rising 

 to l for the smaller ones in more convenient 

 situations and for dairy farms. 



The average weekly wage is from 10s. to 12s. 

 In some cases a cottage, fuel, and extra harvest 

 money is in addition to this. Carters and stock- 

 men get Is. or 2s. a week more. 



Dorchester, Abbotsbury, Weymouth, and Port- 

 land are all within possible distances on good roads. 

 The presence of the fleet at Weymouth doubles 

 the population of that town periodically, and the 

 influx of visitors during the summer creates a large 



