286 



MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



the club, that, if any subscriber purchases with they have once been out. My eldest son now [Dec 1 



"'"' -...:-i_ -f J i: f - 1 g(;tg 7s. a week and a grist ; he also gets his cottage 



for 2l8. a year, and has a garden and ten lugs of po- 

 tato-gjound free. He is not manied. He "keeps a 

 pig. Most laborers manage to keep soine of the pig 

 when they kill it — nearly always half of it. I know 

 where the whole is kept. The farm-laborers gener- 

 ally manage to have a little bacon by them, and they 

 do n't always go without cheese. " The cottages at 

 Miltou Abbas aie not nearly so full as I have known 

 them. 



club-mouey any article of dress or linen not of a 

 plain and useful description, he ceases to be a 

 member, as he also does upon any ill conduct. 

 The effect of tbe.se clubs ha.s been very great in 

 increasing the linen and clothes of the laborers' 

 families since tlieir eslablishincnt. 



Tlie general conclusion as to the physical con- 

 dition of women engaged in Agriculture is, that 

 it is better generally than those of the same 

 class hot so employed. The reason is evident: 

 the means of the family are increased by her 

 earnings ; she has more food, if she be not bet- 

 ter clothed and lodged. Her health is also bet- 

 ter. I am now speaking of her ow u physical 

 condition ; the effects of her working at fann- 

 labor upon her domestic economy, her husband 

 and children, will be considered presently." 



Mrs. Bustle, wife of Charles Bustle, farm- 

 laborer, Wkitchurch, Dorset, examined. 



My husband is carter to Mr. Fowler. He has 7s. 

 a week wages. Wc have also our cottage, with a 

 garden, and ten lugs* of potato-ground, rent free ; also 

 a bu.shel of giist com, if we like as much, a week — 

 that is. tailings at 5s. per bushel. Every week or ten 

 days my husband goes a journey with the wagon — 

 lie has then Is. for his dinner, and another ehilling 

 which ho may spend at the public house where he 

 puts up; which he always does, however. If lie car- 

 ries his victuals with him, he h^s still 2s. every jour- 

 ney. He is out a day and night generally on a jour- 

 ney. Mr. Fowler also gives tis furze for firing, and 

 my husband has £1 at harvest, because he can't do 

 tut-work like the othei-s — he is wanted for something 

 else. I have five girls and a boy. The three eldest 

 girls, 8, 10, and 12, do buttoning, but I don't think 

 they earn 2s. a week between them ; they spoil a 

 good deal of cotton, and dirty more ; and they don't 

 get all money for their buttons — it would be better if 

 they did. The boy is too young to work. 



The bread we make at home is better than baker's 

 bread ; 1 make six loaves out of a bushel of corn : 

 we have not quite so much as that every week ; but 

 what we have, with a bag of potatoes, (240 lbs.) is 

 quite as much a.«i we consume at home. Four ba- 

 ker's loaves, with the potatoes, are not enough. — 

 Baker's bread does not satisfy the children ; it is 

 licked away in no time, and they are hungry all day 

 long with it. We never know the taste of butcher's 

 meat, except when a piece is given to us. 



tSusan Vacher, widoiv, Milfon Ahhas, Dorset. 



Women are employed in the hay-har\'est, and at 

 other times of the year in couching, weeding, and 

 keeping the land clean. Generally the regular hours 

 are from eight to five, but at hay-time and harvest 

 longer ; it depends on circumstances. In harvest I 

 have earned Is. a day, and have had two quarts For 

 haymaking I have had 8d. a day, but it depends on 

 the weather. At other times, for couching. <S:c. 7d. 

 a day. For drawing reeds I have had 7d. a day. — 

 Wages for women liave always been pretty much 

 the same. 



I am now in my fifty-seventh year, and have 

 worked two-and-twcnty years in tlie fields ; I am al- 

 ways better when out at work, and prefer it to living 

 at home. I have nine children. I have two grown- 

 up sons — one 311, the other 27. They went out to 

 work when they were boys — one at 7 years old, the 

 other at 9. They were always quite healthy and 

 strong. As for young women, I think it better for 

 them to go into tlie fields ; they are quite as well 

 there as at buttoning, as far as their morals are con- 

 cerned. Boys do n't want to bide at home when 



* Lug, in Ireland, and in some parts of England 

 and Scotland, is a synonym for ear. This is proba- 

 bly the root of the term as applied to land, meaning 

 a perch or pole. Thus we have, in Spencer, a refer- 

 ence made to " eight lugs of ground." 



{Ed. Farm. Lib. 



Rachel Hay ward, wife of Johii Hay tear d, 

 farm-laborer, Sto2irpain, Dorset. 



There are eleven of us in our family— mvself, my 

 husband, three daughters, and six sons. We have 

 two rooms — one down staii-s, and the other up stairs 

 over it. We all sleep in the bed-room. 



My husband gets Ss. or 7s. %^ith a giist, a bushel, 

 a week ; my two eldest daughters get about 3s. (id. 

 a week at buttoning, and three of ray boys t'ct Ss. 

 a week together— m ail about 16s. 6d."a week." We 

 have \6h lugs of potato-ground, on which we grow 

 potatoes and a few vegetables : for that we pay 73. 

 7d. a year rent. We pay Is. a week for the cottaire, 

 and coal and wood cost us Is. 8d. a week at this 

 time of the year, IDec] We get ^ cwt. of coal a 

 week. I buy, besides, evei-y week, J lb. soap, 1 oz. 

 tea, \ lb. bacon. I reckon we eat a pound of bread 

 each day ; that, with potatoes, gives us enough. My 

 three boys that are out at work went out at 9 years 

 old. ' 



GAS-WATER A.S A MANURE. 

 To the Editor of the Mark-Lane Express : 



An "Old Subscriber," if he wishes to employ 

 the refuse of gas-works for manure, must pro- 

 ceed in his early practicings with extreme cau- 

 tion. The gas-water, or ammoniacal liquor, is 

 undoubtedly an excellent manure, but it re- 

 quires much diluting to iit it for a liquid maimre. 

 If it be applied as received from the gas-works to 

 grass, it will apparently burn up and destroy the 

 plant, but the next year the spot will be distin- 

 guished by verj' much increased feitilitj' ; the re- 

 fuse lime through which the coal-gas has been 

 pas.sed in the process of purifying it from the sul- 

 phureted hydrogen becomes impregnated with 

 the sulphureted hydrogen, and is partly convert- 

 ed into hydro-sulphuretof lime ; a portion of am- 

 monia is at first also in combination with it, but 

 the carbonic acid gas of the lime combining 

 with the ammonia, converts it into carbonate of 

 ammonia or the volatile alkali ; and in a very 

 short time, from exposure, no ammonia will be 

 found remaining in the refuse lime Eefu.se 

 lime may be applied either direct to the land or 

 in compost, and in addition to its property as a 

 manure, it is considered verj' oft'eusive and des- 

 tructive to many insects and grubs. Gas-tar 

 contains the elements necessary for constituting 

 a good manure, but has hitherto been hut little 

 used as a fertilizer. Mr. Bowlej- directs the com- 

 post lieap to be formed with long dung about 

 three feet deep, and coal-tar to be poured regu- 

 larly over it, upon which another layer of dung 

 or turf is to be put, and over ail, on the top, is 

 to be spread the lime : the whole is to remain in 

 this state for two or three months before it is 

 turned. 



If the lime be placed under the tar, the tar 

 will find its way throusrh the dung to the Knie, 

 and, uniting with it, will form a bard cement, 

 which will be broken with difficulty, and which 

 he supposes will be but of little service to tlie 

 laud. 1 am, Mr. Editor, yours, ice. 



AN OLD FBIEND. 



