APPENDIX III. 377 



their furniture, etc., in one lump, and the insurance 

 policy cost him, as nearly as possible, Is. 3d. per 

 cottage per year. For this he deducted Is. per year 

 each from their wages. None of the men would have 

 insured unless he had insisted upon doing it for them. 

 These men had from six to eight quarts of beer per 

 man (over and above their 18s. per week) during 

 harvest every day. In spring and autumn their wages 

 are much increased by forced work, hoeing, etc. In 

 winter the farmer draws their coal for them in his 

 waggons, a distance of eight miles from the nearest 

 wharf, enabling them to get it at cost price. This is 

 no slight advantage, for, at the present high price of 

 coal, it is sold, delivered in the villages, at 2s. per 

 cwt. Many who cannot afford it in the week buy a 

 quarter of a cwt. on Saturday night to cook their 

 Sunday's dinner with, for 6d. This is at the rate of 

 2 per ton. Another gentleman, a large steam culti- 

 vator in the Vale, whose name is often before the 

 public, informs me that his books show that he paid 

 100 in one year in cash to one cottage for labour, 

 showing the advantage the labourer possesses over the 

 mechanic, since his wife and child can add to his in- 

 come. Many farmers pay 50 and 60 a year for beer 

 drunk by their labourers a serious addition to their 

 wages. The railway companies and others who em- 

 ploy mechanics do not allow them any beer. The 

 allowance of a good cottage and a quarter of an acre of 

 garden for Is. per week is not singular. Many who 

 were at the Autumn Manoeuvres of the present year 

 may remember having a handsome row of houses, 

 rather than cottages, pointed out to them as inhabited 

 by labourers at Is. per week. In the immediate 



