Fortunes for Farmers 



six people cannot be maintained. It allows 

 nothing for the man's tobacco or beer. If he in- 

 dulges in them, or if there is the slightest exceed- 

 ing of the allowance he is in debt at once. As a 

 matter of fact he does not spend his money in an 

 ideal manner. When the children are all young 

 he falls into debt every week from three to 

 four shillings, so that the packman, the landlord, 

 or the grocer must go short. It must be under- 

 stood that these figures represent nothing but a 

 rough average. The family receive charity, espe- 

 cially clothes, and too often they spend more on 

 clothes and less on food than their income demands 

 — like those of higher station. The item of pig feed- 

 ing (or bacon) is an attempt to average between 

 what it would cost him to buy his bacon, and the 

 expense of feeding a pig from birth to slaughter. 

 When some of the children are old enough to work 

 at odd times, in harvest, or potato planting and 

 picking up, or at any of the jobs so numerous in 

 these days of intensive culture, and the wife 

 released from her care, works with them, or per- 

 haps picks peas or turns washerwoman, then the 

 family income swells over 20s., and quite good 

 times befall them. I hope to publish further sta- 

 tistics later. 



On the average a labourer is below the poverty 

 line the first ten years of his life. Then he begins 



42 



