FARMERS AND LABOURERS 179 



100 to 300 acres, and several of these have been held 

 by the same family on ordinary twelve months' agree- 

 ments for generations. In one instance, at least, the 

 farm has been so held since the early part of the 

 eighteenth century. Some of the tenants on the estate 

 are evidently men possessed of considerable capital, and 

 there are signs of one or two among them having means 

 independent of their farms. 



A tradition of good farming has prevailed at Brandsby 

 since the latter part of the eighteenth century. Early 

 in the nineteenth a noted breeder of shorthorns, 

 Mr. Samuel Wiley, lived on the estate, and the president 

 to-day of the Brandsby Agricultural Trading Society, 

 Mr. J. Maskill Strickland, is known as a very successful 

 breeder of pedigree stock, both shorthorn cattle and 

 Lincoln sheep. 



The system of employment of farm-labour at Brandsby 

 is similar to that which prevails generally in the North 

 Riding of Yorkshire. The farmers engage men at 

 ' hirings ' for the year, or for six months, as the case 

 may be, on the basis of so much wage in cash and 

 board and lodging in the farmhouse. Under this 

 system the land is cultivated mainly by a bachelor 

 population, which migrates annually. From a social 

 standpoint the system is distinctly bad. It offers no 

 future to the farm-labourer worth considering ; it leads, 

 among other causes, to a scarcity of cottages, so that 

 when a man wants to marry he has great difficulty in 

 finding a place in which to live ; and in most cases it 

 keeps the head man at the farm, even when he might 

 otherwise settle down in an establishment of his own. 

 In the circumstances it is not surprising to learn that 

 much trouble is now experienced in finding men who 

 are willing to ' hire ' as farm- labourers. They prefer to 

 go to the towns. 



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