112 



FARMERS' REGISTER— OPERATION OF POOR LAWS. 



occupiers should refuse to employ laborers who 

 have any properly. 



" Another occupier slated yesterday that he held 

 165 acres of land, of Avhich half was pasture, lie 

 was compelled to employ twelve men and boys, 

 and his farm required the labor of only five, lie 

 is about to give notice that he Avill quit. Every 

 useless laborer is calculated to add 5s. an acre to 

 the rent of a farm of 100 acres. 



" The improvement in agricultural implements, 

 the cultivation of artificial grasses, improved roads, 

 and greater skill and agricultural knowledge, ena- 

 ble an occupier to cultivate his land Avith less la- 

 bor. All these would be sources of profit, but 

 they are all counteracted and made causes of addi- 

 tional perplexity by the redundant population, 

 which the system of the poor laws has augmented. 



"It is common for young agricultural laborers 

 to say, that they are treated worse as single men, 

 than they would be as married men, and that they 

 shall marry to better their conditions in this re- 

 spect." 



LENHAM, KENT. 

 Expended on Poor. 

 £ . £ . 



1468 I 1822 - 2618 

 1598 I 1823 - 2786 



1824 - 3041 



1825 - 3438 



1826 - 2.531 



1827 - 2731 



2150 



In 1816 - 



1817 - 



1818 ~ 



1819 - 2016 



1820 - 2154 



1821 ~ 2348 



FOPCLATION. 



In 1801 i In 1811 

 1434 I 1509 

 Acres, - 6523 



Rental, - 6423^. 

 Value, - f 



Rates in the £ . 12s. 

 Expected to rise to 14s. 



In 1821 I In 1831 

 1959 I 2197 



Expenditure, March, 1S3-2. 



Casual relief, 1992/. 6s. 

 Weekly pay, 1033Z.17s. 

 Various bills, 1273/. 9s. 



Total 



£4299 12s. 



Labor and bills for work on the 

 • highways, _ _ _ £561 



Deduct money repaid by the com- 

 missioners, _ _ _ 147 



414 



Total Expenditure of Poor and Sur- 

 veyor's Rates, - - - £4713 12s. 

 " This is an extensive agricultural parish ; much 

 of the land is of poor quality, still there is a con- 

 siderable quantity of land of a fair average ; some 

 is out of cultivation ; a large estate has been seve- 

 ral years in the hands of the proprietor, and a farm 

 of 420 acres of good land, tithe iree, well situated, 

 has been just thrown up by the tenant of another 

 land owner : the poor rate on this farm amounts to 

 nearly £ 300 per annum. Wages in summer are 

 2s. 3^. When laborers are out of employ, or only 

 in partial employ, their wages ai'e made up accord- 

 ing to tlie following scale: — 



Single man, from. 3s. 6d. to 7s. Od. 



Man and wife 

 Do. with 1 or 2 children 

 Do. 3 do. 



Do. 4 do. 



Do. 5 do. 



Do. 6 do. 



Do. 7 do. 



Do. 8 do. 



10 



12 



13 



14 



15 6 



17 



18 6 

 20 



" The laborers are sent to work on the roads if 

 there is any thing to do, but they are paid accord- 

 ing to this scale whether they work or not. On 

 Saturday the 13th of October last, 27 men were 

 paid from 12s. upwards each, though no work 

 whatever had been done. There have been 70 

 men on the roads in one week, paid according to 

 scale: the greater part of the work is unnecessa- 

 ry; besides the wages, tools arc provided, and it is 

 calculated that the value of the labor does not ex- 

 ceed the expense of the tools and carting. The 

 average number unemployed from November to 

 May is from 60 to 70. During the harvest they 

 are mostly in employ, but if a man loses a day's 

 work, he comes to the parish to have it made up. 

 Nearly 100 out-parishioners, living at Maidstone, 

 receive occasional or constant relief There is a 

 man who hires two cows and keeps several pigs, 

 who, when out of work, receives from the parish 

 18s. per week. The population of this parish is 

 beyond the demand for labor; but early marriages 

 are constantly taking place without any conside- 

 ration on that score: of six of these marriages con- 

 tracted last Octol)er, it Avas expected that most of 

 the parties would be on the parish pay-list in the 

 month of November. A man lately married a girl, 

 who left her place for that purpose on Wednesday ; 

 they applied for relief on the Saturday. It will ap- 

 pear from the scale that, on marriage, there is an 

 immediate increase of 3s. per week.* The admin- 

 istering rel ief to from 70 to 100 men on the pay night, 

 in a district near the place where the riots first broke 

 out, and Avhere one of the causes of dissatisfaction 

 was the reduction of" allowances," isaduty requir- 

 ing more firmness than belongs to many overseers; 

 nor is the present state of the rural police adequate 

 to the requisite protection." 



" In the year 1830, a considerable reduction of 

 wages had taken place, many men were out of 

 work, and the wages to single men on the parish 

 did not exceed 7d. per day. A general spirit of 

 discontent broke out. Incendiarism prevailed to a 

 frightful extent; an eye-witness informed me, that 

 on one night there were three fires burning at 

 once, in the stack-yards of farmers within the 

 parish ; and that for nearly a month, hardly a night 

 passed without conilagrations in the neighborhood, 

 and tumultuous assemblies of laborers demanding 

 a rise of wages. Under these alarming circum- 

 stances, a meeting was called, and an agreement 

 made that the wages should be 2s. per day for an 

 able-bodied married man, Is. 6d. for a single man 

 of 18, and from 3s. 6d. to 5s. per week, for boys 

 from 15 to 18. That the surplus laborers on the 

 parish should be paid according to the following 

 scale : — 



Single man, 18 years of age, 6s. per week. 

 Man and wife, - - 9s. do. 



Do. with 1 child - - 10s. do. 

 Do. 2 children - - 12s. do. 



Do. 3 do. - - 12s. do. and a gall. 



of flour, or 

 13s. 4d. 

 Do. 4 do. - - 12s. do. and 2 gall. 



of flour. 

 And so on till, for ten children, the pay might 

 amount to IBs. 8d. per week. A discretion was 



* 'In Uie workhouse there are 35 imnales. Young men 

 have been sometimes sent there, but they have said, "You 

 put us in to punish us ; wc will only marry the sooner." 



