OPENINGS FOR LABOUR 65 



belief that one of the best means of achieving this aim 

 is to be found in an adequate supply of proper housing 

 accommodation. He has, accordingly, erected some 

 thirty additional cottages on the estate during the last 

 three years, in the interests of the workers. 



The staff of regular hands is supplemented in the 

 fruit season by 500 or 600 women and girls, engaged 

 temporarily as pickers. Of these, 200 belong to the 

 neighbourhood, and the remainder are brought in 

 from some of the large manufacturing districts. For 

 the accommodation of the strangers, buildings have 

 been erected on different parts of the estate, sufficient 

 for the sleeping of 400 persons at one time. In those 

 that I saw there were three beds in each cubicle, and 

 the sleeping quarters themselves formed an open square, 

 in the centre of which was a large living-room, where 

 meals could be prepared. The compound is under the 

 charge of the foreman and his wife ; medical attendance 

 is provided through a ' club ' which the pickers form, 

 and a clergyman holds a service in their interests on 

 the Sunday. Not only is employment thus found for a 

 considerable number of women and girls, at good wages, 

 for a period of about three months in the year, but the 

 occasion is regarded by them in the light, also, of a 

 pleasant and health-giving holiday. 



All the same, the work involved may be heavy 

 enough and also anxious enough in the height of 

 the season, so long as it lasts. The 1,300 or 1,400 tons 

 of plums, for instance, have all to be gathered in a very 

 short period, and Mr. Martin, the manager of the fruit 

 farm, pointed out to me the difficulty of dealing with 

 such quantities, should the weather be unfavourable at 

 that particular season a shower of rain, for instance, 

 making it necessary to leave the perfectly ripe fruit on 

 the trees until it had again become dry. Then the 



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