LABOURER. 



LACTOMETER. 



the business of a farm. The price of labour 

 has at all times varied ; and, as the poorer 

 classes feel, with additional rigour, every evil 

 arising from the pressure of the times, different 

 expedients have been devised, with a view to 

 alleviate their burdens, supply their wants, 

 and render them more comfortable. From 

 these investigations, it appears that, in the 

 middle of the 14th century, the usual price of 

 labour was 2d. per day, and wheat was sold at 

 from 3s. 4rf. to 4s. per quarter. In the middle 

 of the 15th century the pay of a labourer per 

 day was 3d., and wheat cost from 5s. to 5s. 6d. 

 per quarter. In the earlier part of the 16th 

 century the price of labour rose to 3^d. f and 

 that of a quarter of wheat to 7s. 6f. About the 

 middle of the 17lh century the pay of a labourer 

 upon an average was (in Essex) 13d., and corn 

 had risen to 40s. per quarter. Towards the 

 latter end of the 18th century the daily pay of 

 a labourer was from 14d. to ISd. in the coun- 

 try, and from 2s. to 2s. 6d. in the metropolis, 

 while the price of wheat was 48s. per quarter. 

 The payment of daily wages, however, serves 

 but imperfectly to ascertain the real price of 

 labour, as a considerable portion of work is 

 performed by the piece, so that a labourer in 

 general earns from 3d. to 6d. per day more 

 than by the common pay. The curious and 

 philanthropic reader, who feels an interest in 

 this popular inquiry, will be fully gratified by 

 a perusal of Mr. Davies's Case of Labourers in 

 Husbandry Stated and Considered, &c. 4to, 1795, 

 p. 200 ; and Sir F. M. Eden's State of the Poor, 

 &c., 3 vols. 4to, 1797. Mrs. Davies Gilbert, of 

 Eastbourne, a lady whose active interest for 

 the prosperity of agriculture, and the improve- 

 ment of the condition of the labouring poor, 

 may fairly (as has been justly observed) be 

 set as an example for many country gentlemen 

 to follow, urges most strenuously, in many pub- 

 lications (but particularly in the Quart. Journ. 

 of Jlgr. vol. xii. p. 252), the advantages to be 

 derived from manual labour, in preference to 

 horse labour. In England, many benevolent 

 persons of distinguished rank have also re- 

 cently taken up the cause of the labourer, and 

 formed themselves into a society, very appro- 

 priately named "the Labourer's Friend So- 

 ciety." They advocate strongly, and endeavour 

 to promote more generally the system of home 

 colonies for the cultivation of waste land. 

 See ALLOTMENT and SPADE HUSBANDRY, FARM 

 SERVANTS, WORKMEN. &c. 



Farm labourers, being the most valuable 

 class of men that a populous country pos- 

 sesses, should have every comfort provided 

 for them that is compatible with their situa- 

 tion, and conformable to the general interest 

 of the community. Their wages ought to be 

 everywhere and at all times sufficient for the 

 maintenance of themselves and families while 

 in health, with a surplus to provide against 

 the day of sickness, without their being under 

 the debasing necessity of making application 

 to their neighbours for relief. Persons so es- 

 sentially useful to society should not merely 

 support existence, but have the comforts of 

 wholesome habitations, with suff cient spaces 

 o r ground to furnish them and neir families 

 694 



! with changes of proper vegetable food without 

 much expense. 



LACTARY. A milk-house, dairy, or place 

 ! where milk is kept. The term has been made 

 to designate the whole establishment of a 

 dairy. See DAIRY. 



LACTIC ACID. This substance, in the 

 opinion of Berzelius and some other chemists, 

 exists in milk, and in larger proportion when 

 it has become sour; but others imagine that it 

 is the product of its decomposition. It was 

 first recognised as a peculiar acid by Scheele, 

 but he did not obtain it perfectly pure. It was 

 afterwards observed by Berzelius in many ani- 

 mal fluids; and by Braconnet to exist with 

 acetic acid in fermented rice-meal, wheat- 

 paste, the juice of the beet-root, and other vege- 

 table substances : he named it nanceic acid. 

 It is formed, also, duriig the putrefactive pro- 

 cess in some animal bodies. Lactic acid is a 

 colourless, inodorous, syrupy liquid, and very 

 sour. It may be so concentrated as to have a 

 specific gravity of 1*2 15: it attracts moisture 

 from the atmosphere, and dissolves in water 

 and alcohol in all proportions. At 480 Fah- 

 renheit, it is decomposed. When added to 

 boiling milk, it is capable of immediately co- 

 agulating about 700 times its weight; but, 

 when cold, it produces comparative little effect 

 upon it: it also coagulates albumen. It has 

 the property of dissolving fresh precipitated 

 phosphate of lime ; a property which is of 

 great advantage in the animal economy, and 

 might even be rendered useful in manures. 

 The constituents of the lactic acid are, 6 parts 

 of carbon, 5 of hydrogen, and 5 of oxygen. 

 (Penny Cydopadia, vol. xiii. p. 268.) 



LACTOMETER (Lat. lac, milk, and metrum, 

 a measure). A term applied to a glass tube 

 for ascertaining the proportion which the 

 cream bears to the milk of any particular cow, 

 or the produce of a whole dairy. Lactometers 

 of different kinds have been invented ; the best 

 is called " the four or five glass lactometer." 



The principle of the instrument is, that if 

 new milk is poured into glass tubes and allow- 

 ed to remain, the division between the cream, 

 which floats upon the surface of the milk, will 

 be so evident that its depth may be easily 

 measured; and should the milk from any cow 

 produce more cream than that of another, the 

 difference will be seen by the divisions or 



