Book V. MANAGEMENT OF SERVANTS. 733 



left to their own judgment, allowing an adequate sum or wages for that purpose : but 

 the feeding and clothing of farm servants, and especially of single "men, requires to 

 be seen to by the master. Without this attention on the part of the latter, the sura al- 

 lowed for these purposes will either be in part hoarded up, or idly spent, in either case 

 lessening the physical strength, and often injuring the moral faculties of the man. 



4523. In former times, the servants lived at the same table with their masters, and that 

 is still the practice in those districts where the farms are small. On moderate-sized, and 

 on large farms, they are usually sent to a separate table ; but of late a custom has beea 

 introduced of putting them on board-wages. This is a most pernicious practice ; which 

 often leads them to the ale-house, corrupts their morals, and injures their health. It is a 

 better plan, with a view of lessening trouble, to board, them with the bailiff; but it is still 

 more desirable for the farmer, to have them under his own eye, that he may attend to 

 their moral conduct. He will find much more useful assistance, from the decent and 

 the orderly, than from the idle and the profligate. 



4524. The best mode of managing yearly married, servants, whether ploughmen or la- 

 borers, we conceive to be that already referred to (4496. ) as practised in Northumber- 

 land, and other northern counties. Marshal (Review of Bailey's Northumberland) calls it 

 a remain of feudal times ; but certainly, if it is "So, it appears one of those remains which 

 should be carefully preserved. "We may challenge the empire to produce servants and 

 farm operations equal to those where this system is adopted. The great excellence of 

 the system consists on its being founded in the comfort of the servant. 



4525. The permanent laborers on a farm ought to be treated in the same manner as 

 the ploughmen ; and indeed it is much to be wished, for the sake both of humanity and 

 morality, that all married laborers, who live in the country, should have gardens attached 

 to their cottages, if not a cow kept, and a pig, and fowls, in the manner of the Scottish 

 ploughmen. Some valuable observations on this subject will be found in The 

 Husbandry of Scotland, axiA The Code of Agriculture. 



4526. Temporary laborers, or such as are engaged for hay-making, reaping, turnip- n 

 hoeing, &c. are for the most part beyond the control of the farmer as to their living and 

 lodging. It is a good practice, however, where hay-making and reaping is performed by 

 the day, to feed the operators, and to lodge such of them as have not homes in the neigh- 

 borhood, on the premises ; providing them with a dry loft, and warm blankets. Piece or 

 job-work, however, is now becoming so very general, in all farm operations performed by 

 occasional laborers, that attention to these particulars becomes unnecessary, and the 

 farmer's chief business is to see that the work be properly done. 



4527. A day^s work of a country laborer is ten hours during the spring, summer, and 

 autumn quarters. Farmers, however, are not at all imiform in their hours of working 

 during these periods. Some begin at five o'clock, rest three hours at mid-day, during 

 the more violent heat of the sun, and fill up their day's work, by beginning again at one 

 o'clock, and ending at six in the evening. Others begin at six, and end at six, allowing 

 half an hour at breakfast, and an hour at dinner. But although these be the ordinary 

 hours, both for servants and laborers, during the more busy seasons of the year, yet neither 

 of them will scruple to 'work either sooner or later, when occasion requires. In regard 

 to the winter months, the hours of labor are from the dawn of morning, as long as it is 

 light, with the allowance of about half an hour at mid-day for dinner. 



4528. That the rate of labor must in a great measure depend upon the price of grain, 

 Ls a general principle. In England, the value of a peck of wheat, and in Scotland, of a 

 peck of oatmeal, (being the principal articles of subsistence of the lower orders of the 

 people in the two countries,) were long accounted an equivalent to the daily pay of a 

 laborer. In both countries, however, the price of potatoes has, of late years, had a con- 

 siderable influence in the rate of labor ; and in England, the effects of the poor laws have 

 tended to keep down that rate below the increased price of provisions, and thus have 

 deranged the natural progress of things. It has been ascertained, that a man, his 

 wife, and from two to three children, if wheat is their habitual food, wiil require ten 

 gallons weekly. When they live on bread, hard working people ought to have the best 

 kind, as that will furnish the most nutrition. How then could a laborer and his family 

 exist, upon wages of from 6s. to 9s. per week, when wheat is from 8^. to 105, or 12s. per 

 bushel ? The difference is compensated by the poor-rates, a most exceptionable mode of 

 making up the deficiency ; for labor would otherwise have found its own level, and the 

 laborer would have obtained the price of a bushel and a half of wheat weekly. 



4529. I7i Scotland, the rate of labor has increased beyond the price of provisions. 

 Prior to 1792, the average price of a peck of oatmeal was Is. Id. and the average price of 

 a day's labor in summer, Is. l^d. which nearly corresponded with the principle above 

 stated: but the average price of a peck of oatmeal, in 1810, was I5. 3|rf. whilst the 

 average price of a day's labor was Is. W^d. which shews, in a most satisfactory manner, 

 the very great improvement that lias taken place, in the lot of the laboring classes, in that 

 part of the united kingdom. {Gen. Rep. vol. iii. p. 262.) 



