AGEICULTURAL LABOUEEES 231 



few years his life is an arduous struggle, which generally 

 brings him on the parish. To the peasant the bothy 

 system offers the same advantages which clubs afford to a 

 different class. It enables him to wait in comfort till he 

 has saved money. In some parts of France and in the 

 north of England the hind's house is a frequent appendage 

 to a farm. Labourers are hired for the year, and barracked 

 on the spot in homesteads presided over by married 

 labourers. They are better fed, and enjoy many com- 

 forts which they must forego when married. If such a 

 system could be revived, labourers would not be driven to 

 improvident marriages ; they might save money before 

 they start in life ; they would be better trained to various 

 kinds of work; they would acquire the money and the 

 skill to make the most of allotments. 



Sound policy and justice alike required that allotments 

 should become universal. The most satisfactory and effec- 

 tive method of extending the system is the voluntary action 

 of landlords ; but to apathy or selfishness compulsion is 

 rightly applied. Few cases remain in which the want is 

 not supplied, and the question seems to be rapidly passing 

 into an urban phase.' The last session of Parliament, it 

 may be added, secured compensation to allotment tenants 

 for unexhausted improvements. Socially allotments stimu- 

 late thrift in early youth ; they make labourers independent, 

 train them to habits of industry, occupy their leisure, 

 enable them to provide for old age. Agriculturally they 

 counteract the prejudicial effects of education on the prac- 

 tical efficiency of labour by making boys and girls know- 

 ledgeable in agricultural matters ; they prevent agricultural 

 labour from migrating to the towns. Economically they 

 occupy the leisure time of labourers, and reclaim the 

 • See Appendix XIV., 'Allotments.' 



