23 



allowance in lieu of beer being added to the wages, the men are enabled to 

 save this if they please. — I am, dear Sir, yours truly, 



PHILIP ROSE. 

 Mr. John Abbey. 



Fbom G. G. Dixon, Esq., 



SwYNcoMBE. Henley-on-Thames. 

 June 28th 1880. 



* Dear Sik, — I am truly sorry to have been so long in answering yours 

 of the 16th ult. I am so over head and ears in farming 1,200 acres, I find but 

 little time for anything like correspondence. Yet 1 am very pleased to give 

 you a few facts. I have now a gang of six men mowing, four of them are 

 abstainers from alcoholic drinks. It is scarcely necessary to say that men can 

 do hard work, not only as well, but really better without intoxicating drinks 

 than with them. I pay them per acre accoi'ding to the worth of the job. 

 The)"- earned last week £1 13s. 9d. each. I give the abstainers 2s. 6d. extra 

 when the mowing is done. We pay at the rate of Is. per day, from (> a.m. to 

 7 p.m., extra as wages, in lieu of beer. And when we work later, say till 10 

 or 11 o'clock, we pay 4d. per hour. We always recognize extra work on jobs 

 by money payment and not by giving beer. I make no arrangements for 

 supplying drink. I find, as a rule, that the men like to have the money 

 instead. In the tea and coffee system, some like sugar, others object; some 

 prefer milk, others do not. It is one of my arrangements that no man leaves 

 his work to go for public-house beer. Most of the cottagers brew (without a 

 license) a very simple yet refreshing drink, from ginger and sugar, flavoured 

 with hops or lemon, as preferred, and call it their home-brewed, I wish I 

 could see you to explain any other matters, as I have had man}'' years' 

 experience in abstinence principles, and have seen most encouraging results, 

 alike beneficial both to employers and labourers. 



Yours faithfully, 

 Mr. John Abbey. G. G. DIXON. 



Steward to Colonel Ruck-Keene. 



From Rev. P. W. Lee. 



Leapield Vicarage, Witney, Oxon. 

 July 2nd, 1880. 



* Dear Sir,- I myself have for some three or four years given the men 

 and women (about a dozen) who gather in my small hay harvest, oatmeal 

 drink prepared as you recommend. They like it, and say it is both meat 

 and drink. I also give them 6d. a day in lieu of beer at the end of the whole 

 work. I am sending round about fifty leaflets, &c., with the Parish 

 Magazine this month. 



Yours faithfully, 

 Mr. J. Abbey P. W. LEE. 



Oheddington, Bucks. 



* Mr J. F. Archer, Parish Churchwarden and Farmer, joined the 

 Oheddington Branch of the Church of England Temperance Society, as a 

 Total Abstainer on its formation in March last (1876). Several of his men 

 and boys followed his example. In harvest-time he paid the usual wages, aud 

 gave, in addition, the customary beer-money to the men, 4s. 6d, weekly ; and 

 to the boys in proportion. Besides the wages and beer-money, he provided 

 them gratis with a plentiful and regular supply of the beverage, the ingredients 

 and preparation of which are stated below. Mr. Archer, who is deservedly a 

 popular man amongst his labourers, was applied to by other men and boys, 

 who offered to work for him in harvest on these terms. Further, the greater 

 number of these, though not Total Abstainers, but regular beer-drinkers 

 declared their willingness not only to abstain during their harvest work, but 

 also, without joining the Temperance Society, to forego their old habits of 

 beer-drinking as long as those who had joined did so. This voluntary 



