280 * .-l.V AMERICAN FARMER IX EXGLAXD. 



i 

 " The usual allowance given in Herefordshire by masters, is three quarts 



a-day ; and in harvest-time many laborers drink in a day ten or twelve 

 quarts of a liquor that, in a stranger's mouth, would be mistaken for vine- 

 gar." Johnson and Errington on the Apple. 



" Bacon, when they can get it, is the staff of the laborers' dinner." " The 

 frugal housewife provides a large lot of potatoes, and while she indulges 

 herself with her younger ones only with salt, cuts off the small rasher and 

 toasts it over the plates of the father and elder sons, as being the bread- 

 winners; and this is all they want" "A Rector and Conservative" in the Times. 



" After doing up his horses he takes breakfast, which is made of flour, 

 with a little butter, and water ' from the tea-kettle ' poured over it. He 

 takes with him to the field a piece of bread and (if he has not a young 

 family and can afford it) cheese, to eat at midday. He returns home in the 

 afternoon to a few potatoes, and possibly a little bacon, though only those 

 who are better off can afford this. The supper very often consists of bread 

 and water." "The Times Commissioner," in Wiltshire, 1851. 



It would be unjust not to add, that in a large part of England 

 the laborers are much more comfortable than these statements 

 might indicate. I am also convinced that the condition of the 

 laborer generally is improving, and that he is now in a much 

 better condition than ten years ago. The main stay of the labor- 

 er's stomach is fine, white wheaten bread, of the best possible 

 quality, such as it would be a luxury to get any where else in 

 the world, and such as many a New England farmer never tasted, 

 and, even if his wife were able to make it, would think an ex- 

 travagance to be ordinarily upon his table. No doubt a coarser 

 bread would be more wholesome, but it is one of the strongest 

 prejudices of the English peasant, that brown bread is not fit for 

 human beings. In Scotland and Ireland, and in some hilly dis- 

 tricts of England, only, wheat bread is displaced by more whole- 

 some and economical preparations of oatmeal. 



AVith regard to fresh meat, a farmer once said to me, "They 

 will hardly taste it all their lives, except, it may be, once a year, 



