188 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



DEC. !6, I-4r, 



THE WAGES OF LAIiOU. 



The following is a.n abstract of documents lately 

 presonled to the British Parliament, containing an- 

 swers to questions put to foreign consuls by tlio 

 Secretary of Slate, having reference to the condi- 

 tion of the agricultural peasantry. 



RATES OF WAGES. 



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48 to 250 shilling:", and day laborers get in that, 

 country from 4 1-2 to 15 pence per day ; and when- 

 ever they get as much r.s 5 ponce they have to 

 find themselves. In Germany, wages are still low- 

 er, and range by the year between 52 and 100 shil- 

 lings, and day laborers receive iVoni 4 1-2 to 7 pence 

 per day, and find themselves in food. In South 

 Unlhind, farm hands get by the year from 200 to 

 250 shillings, and day laborers from 3 to 4 pence 

 per day, and are found. Whoever will take the 

 trouble to examine the table, which is official and 

 authentic, will see tliat in all these countries — 

 France, Germany, Netherlands, Italy — wages by 

 the year for an able-bodied, sound, healthy man, 

 no where exceed 250 shillings ; and, in many in- 

 stances fall as low as 40, 50 and 60 shillings ; and 

 the daily wages range from .3 to 9 and 12 pence, 

 rising in one place, and only one, to 20 pence, and 

 the laborer finding himself! What hope is here 

 for a man born the son of poor parents, ever to bet- 

 ter his condition ? What ray of hope is- there to 

 stimulate him to exertion .' None. lie who is 

 there born a peasant dies a peasant. Tliose born 

 to the plough die at the plough-tail ; and all that 

 the longest life of laborious toil can procure for 

 thern is coarse and scanty means of subsistence. 



We may add, by way of making these statements 

 more intelligible, that the shillings and pence re- 

 ferred to in this table are of sterling British money, 

 and that a sufficiently near approximation to our 

 coin is made by just doubling the sum. Thus, 

 when it is stated that in Germany wages vary 

 from 4 1-2 to 7 pence a day — the laborer finding 

 himself — the amount in our money may be put 

 down at from 'J to 14 cents ! On the continent of 

 Europe, it will be seen, that nowhere can an able- 

 bodied, industrious, hardworking man earn more 

 than 250 shillings a year, or from $55 to $G0, while 

 tlie average price of such labor does not exceed 

 $30 per annum.— ."V". 1". Amtrican. 



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It will be seen by the above table that in France 

 yearly wages for an able-bodied man range from 



DAMP STABLES. 



To the Editiir of ihe Farmer's Cabinet : 



Sir — When 1 came to tha farm which I now 

 hold by purchase, I found liie stables built under 

 large trees and near a spring of water, with a nortli- 

 ern aspect ; my horses were soon in poor condi- 

 tion, with long and rough coats, and almost always 

 la.t in their bowels, nor could I get them up by e.\- 

 tra food or lighter work ; but my cows suffered 

 most, for they were always sick ; tlieir milk fell 

 ofl^, and their butter was poor and of a bad color 

 and taste, and four of tliem slipped their calves be- 

 fore tlieir time : wlien the spring came, they left 

 their winti^r (luarters in a worse state than I had ev- 

 er seen them, and two of them died from tlve scours 

 on going to pasture. On inciuiry, I found that the 

 tenant who had left, had always been, what the 

 neighbors termed, unfortunate in his horses and 

 cattle, and from that cause, more than any other, 

 he had not been able to make both ends meet. 

 The truth flashed upon me in an instant, and in a 

 very little time longer than it has taken me to tell 

 you my story, 1 had commenced pulling down the 

 stable, the nnheallhiness of which had been, I was 

 convinced, the cause of all the evil and all the 

 loss, and it was not more than two days before 

 there v.-as not left one stone upon another of the 

 whole fabric. I now set to work and erected anoth- 

 er on higher ground, removed from water and clear 

 from the shade of trees, with a south-east aspect 

 and dry capacious yard ; and from that day I have 



had neither sickntss nor sorrow in my outdoor 

 household ; my horses live on less food, are always 

 sleek and in good working condition, and my cows 

 are a credit to their keep ; our butter brings two 

 cents a pound more in the market, and for the last 

 year our sales are more than doubled from the same 

 number of cows, and the same pasturage; and no 

 more premature calves. Instead of watering my 

 cattle, as heretofore, at the spring under the trees 

 — the water cold, with a deadly taste and bad col- 

 or — I sunk a well and put in a pump, and at a long 

 trough in the yard for the summer, and another un- 

 der shelter for the winter, my cattle slake their 

 thirst, without setting up their coats as tliey always 

 used to do after drinking at the hide under the 

 trees ; even when the weather was warm, they 

 were accustomed to shake all over as though they 

 were in a fit of the ague, after drinking their fill of 

 this water ; and to this, with the bad aspect of the 

 stables, I attribute all the sickness and misery 

 which I have experienced amongst my cattle and 

 horses. 



I have been induced to tell you the above, by 

 reading in a valuable English work, called " Sta- 

 ble Economy," some observations which would go 

 to show tliat the writer, like myself, had enjoyed 

 the experience of the truth of what he so well de- 

 scribes; and as they fully corroborate all my con- 

 victions, I should be glad of the opportunity to pre- 

 sent you readers with what he sdvances on the 

 subject, if it meets with your approbation ; and am 

 your constant reader, M. 



" A damp stable produces more evil than a damp 

 house : it is there we expect to find horses with 

 bad eyes, coughs, greasy heels, swelled legs, mango, 

 and a long, rough, dry, staring coat, which no 

 grooming can cure. Tlie French attribute glan- 

 ders and the farcy to a humid atmosphere, and it is 

 a fact that in a damp situation we find these disea- 

 ses most prevalent : when horses are first lodged 

 in a damp stable, they soon show how much they 

 feel the change ; they become dull, languid and 

 feeble, the coat stares, they refuse to fend, and at 

 fast work they cut their legs in spite of all care to 

 prevent them: this arises from weakness; and 

 while some of the horses catch cold, others are at- 

 tacked by inflammati<m of the throat, the lungs or 

 the eyes ; most of them lose flesh rapidly, and the 

 change produces most mischief when it is made in 

 the winter season. Horses in constant and labori- 

 ous employment must have good lodgings and kind 

 treatment ; but where the stables are bad, the man- 

 agement is seldom good, and it is no exaggeration 

 to say, that hundreds of valuable horses are de- 

 stroyed every year by the combined influence of 

 bad stables and bad management. And although 

 excessive toil and bad food have much to do in the 

 work of destruction, every hostile agent operates 

 with most force where the stables are of the wi rst 

 kind. 



Stables should always be erected on dry ground 

 or that which will admit of perfect draining, with 

 the surface a little sloping. Stables built in a 

 hollow or on marshy laud, are always damp, and 

 when the foundations are sunk in clay, no drainino- 

 can keep the walls dry ; the dampness will follow 

 up the walls from the dee))est foundation. It is 

 true that damp stables may be rendered less un- 

 comfortable by strewing the floor with sand or .saw- 

 dust, and, in some cases, a stove-pipe might be 

 made to pass through the stable near the floor, but 

 such stables are liable to frequent and great altera- 



