5IO History of the English Landed Interest. 



following averages represent as nearly as possible the usual 

 yearly wages exclusive of bed, board and washing in the 

 house, as collated from the various Reports to the Board of 

 Agriculture in 1794 : — 



Men Wages— Past. Present. 



Ploughman £10 to £16 ... £15 to £25 per year. 



Carter or waggoner . . 8 to 15 ... 15 to 20 „ 



Bailiflf or yardman . . 8 to 14 ... 14 to 16 ,, 



Boy 5 to 8 ... 8 to 12 „ 



Women. 



Dairymaid 6 to 8 ... 10 to 14 „ 



Under dairymaid . . 3 to 4 . . . 5 to 7 ., 



This considerable rise was probably wrung from the farmers 

 as an equivalent for the abstracted rights of commonage, 

 which occurred over the enclosure system, but was, as we have 

 already shown, out of all proportion with that rapid rise in 

 the prices of food which occurred at the same period. Since 

 1760 the labouring classes had lost about 4,000,000 acres of 

 common which they had formerly the privilege of using for 

 their pigs, geese, and other necessities. Besides the inade- 

 quacy of a money equivalent, the severance of this last hold 

 on the soil was found to have a most pernicious effect on the 

 temperament of the rural labourer. Thus, in 1827, a witness 

 examined by a select committee of the House of Commons on 

 emigration, stated : " I could load the committee with inform- 

 ation as to the importance of the cottagers renting a portion 

 of land with their cottages ; it keeps them buoyant, and it 

 keeps them industrious." Consequently where, as in the south 

 of England, the labourers lived apart, each in his own cottage, 

 instead of, as in the north, in the farmhouses, the garden 

 became a special feature of their holdings. 



The good effects of this economy drew a favourable com- 

 ment from Cobbett in his '■'■Rural Rides'''' oi 1821. The Society 

 for Bettering the Condition of the Poor urged the advantages 

 of the allotment system in its annual reports ; and earlier still, 

 the Board of Agriculture, in the first year of the century, 

 offered a gold medal to any one who should explain in the most 

 satisfactory manner the best means of rendering the allotment 

 system as general throughout the kingdom as circumstances 



