Book V. CHOICE OF SERVANTS, 727 



are often prejudicial to the interests of the master, without being of any advantage to the 

 servant. For instance, in Yorkshire and in other districts, it is a custom to give farm 

 servants liquor, both morning and evening, whatever is the nature and urgency of the 

 work. Nothing can be more absurd than permitting a ploughman to stop for half an hour 

 in a winter day to drink ale, while his horses are neglected and shivering with cold. 



4496. The following plan of maintaining the hinds or ploughmen in the best cultivated 

 districts in Scotland, is found by experience to be greatly superior to any other mode 

 hitherto adopted. 



4497. Proper houses are built for the farm servants, contiguous to every farmstead. 

 This gives them an opportunity of settling in life, and greatly tends to promote their 

 future welfare. Thus also the farmer has his people at all times within reach, for carry- 

 ing on his business. 



4498. The farm servants, when married, receive the greater part of their wages in 

 the produce of the soil, which gives them an interest in the prosperity of the concern in 

 which they are employed, and in a manner obliges them to eat and drink comfortably; 

 while young men often starve themselves in order to save money for drinking or clothes; 

 in either of which cases they are deficient in the requisite animal strength. At least, 

 under this mode of payment, they are certain of being supplied with the necessaries of 

 life, and a rise of prices does not affect them; whereas, when their wages are paid in 

 money, they are exposed to many temptations of spending it, which their circumstances 

 can ill afford ; and during a rise of prices they are sometimes reduced to considerable dif- 

 ficulties. From the adoption of an opposite system, habits of sobriety and economy, so 

 conspicuous among the farm servants of Scotland, and the advantages of which cannot 

 be too highly appreciated, have arisen and still prevail in these districts. 



4499. A most important branch of this system is, that almost every married man has a 

 cow, of a moderate size, kept for him by the farmer all the year round. This is a boon 

 of great utility to his family. The prospect of enjoying this advantage has an excellent 

 effect upon the morals of young unmarried servants, who, in general, make it a point to 

 lay up as much of their yearly wages as will enable them to purchase a cow and furniture 

 for a house when they enter into the married state. These savings, under different cir- 

 cumstances, would most probably have been spent in dissipation. 



4500. They have also several other perquisites, as a piece of ground for potatoes and 

 flax, (about one-eighth part of an acre for each) ; liberty to keep a pig, half a dozen hens, and 

 bees; their fuel is carried home to them; they receive a small allowance in money per 

 journey, when sent from home with corn, or for coals or lime; and during the harvest, 

 they are maintained by the farmer, that they may be always at hand. 



4501. There are nowhere to be met with, more active, respectable, and conscientious ser-* 

 vants, than those who are kept according to this system. There is hardly an instance of their 

 soliciting relief from the public. They rear numerous families, who are trained to indus- 

 try, and knowledge in the operations of agriculture, and whose assistance in weeding the 

 crops, &c. is of considerable service to the farmer. They become attached to the farm, 

 take an interest in its .prosperity, and seldom think of removing from it. Under this 

 system, every great farm is a species of little colony, of which the farmer is the resident 

 governor. Nor, on the whole, can there be a more gratifying spectacle, than to see a 

 large estate, under the direction of an intelligent landlord, or of an agent competent to 

 the task of managing it to advantage ; where the farms are of a proper size ; where 

 they are occupied by industrious and skilful tenants, anxious to promote, in consequence 

 of the leases they enjoy, the improvement of the land in their possession ; and where the 

 cultivation is carried on by a number of married servants, enjoying a fair competence, 

 and rearing large families, sufficient, not only to replace themselves, but also from their 

 surplus population, to supply the demand, and even the waste, of the other industrious 

 classes of the community. Such a system, there is reason to believe, is brought to a 

 higher degree of perfection, and carried to a greater extent, in the more improved districts 

 of Scotland, than perhaps any other country in Europe. {Code, ^c.) 



4502. A shepherd is of course only requisite on sheep farms ; and no description of 

 farm servant is required to be so steady and attentive. At the lambing season much of 

 the farmer's property is in his hands, and depends on his unwearied exertions early and 

 late. Such servants should be well paid and comfortably treated. 



4503. The laborers required on a farm are few ; in general, one for field operations, 

 as hedge and ditch work, roads, the garden, cleaning out furrows, &c. ; and another for 

 attending to the cattle, pigs, and straw-yard, killing sheep and pigs when required, &c. 

 will be sufficient. Both will assist in harvest, hay-time, threshing, filling dung, &c. 

 These men are much better servants when married and hired by the year, tlian when 

 accidental day laborers. 



4504. The female servants required in farmery art; casual, as hay-makers, turnip 

 hoers, Src. ; or yearly, as house, dairy, and poultry maids. Much depends on the steadi* 



3 A 4 



