DISPLACEMENT OF WORKMEN 423 



DISPLACEMENT OF WORKMEN. 



A more serious difficulty with which Mr. Rose 

 was confronted was the necessary displacement of 

 the workmen originally employed on the farm, who 

 numbered thirty-eight, and many of whom were 

 tenants of the cottages. The men themselves 

 became very apprehensive about their position, in 

 spite of the fact that they were all given an oppor- 

 tunity to take one of the holdings ; they sent the 

 following letter to the President of the Board of 

 Agriculture and to the Commissioner of Woods 

 and Forests, as well as to Mr. Rose himself : 



' We, as the undivided workmen of the Crown 

 Farms, Burwell, are very much upset at the thought 

 of the letting of the farms for small holdings, which 

 will mean putting about forty regular hands out of 

 a regular employment, besides a set of odd fellows 

 in busy seasons (which is about another twenty- 

 five), such as harvest-time and other busy times ; 

 and we, as workmen, hope that we shall get a plan 

 of helping the greater number, instead of the fewer, 

 and it is hoped the workmen will be first considered 

 that lived and worked on the farms very near all 

 their lifetime. If these small holdings come to 

 pass, it will mean turning fourteen to eighteen 

 families out of house and home, and between thirty 

 and forty children, to let a lot of strangers come in 

 and take the land as small holders and work it 

 themselves and employ no labour, and that will 

 mean we, as labourers, will have to turn out of 



