H4 BRITISH RURAL LIFE AND LABOUR. 



whisky in some of the southern counties, where there are 

 more towns than elsewhere, but in no case do the estimates 

 given exceed is. 2d. a week. There is very little of 

 the English village system in Scotland; consequently, the 

 temptation of the village public-house is largely absent. 

 The consumption of tobacco is generally said to be from 

 2 to 3 oz. a week at 3d. an oz. Some correspondents put 

 the quantity consumed as high as 4 oz. a week." 



In connection with the dietary of the Scottish peasant, 

 the matter of oatmeal, which may perhaps be called 

 the great national food, is especially interesting. The 

 report on this subject says : 



" Many of the returns refer to a decline in the practice 

 of eating oatmeal and other meal, and of keeping cows, 

 and to an increase in the consumption of baker's bread, 

 and other flour products, and also of tea, which is now 

 stated to be largely drunk instead of milk. The changes 

 in these respects are no doubt due to the growing tendency 

 of the farm servants to prefer their wages being paid more 

 in money and less in kind, and to the facilities afforded 

 them of buying bread, groceries, tinned meat (of which, 

 especially in bothies, a good deal is used), jams, cake, etc., 

 from the tradesmen's carts and vans which now frequently 

 call at their houses. Sometimes oatmeal and potatoes 

 are bartered for fish with the fish-wives, and, in some 

 districts, a portion of the allowances in kind are sold. Farm 

 servants do not often belong to benefit societies, and this 

 is doubtless largely due to the system of yearly or half- 

 yearly engagements with regular wages, payable during 

 sickness or absence from work from any other cause. Coal 

 and clothing clubs are also very uncommon. The figures 

 which have been given as to the value of food consumed, 

 apply to a man, his wife, and four children ; but in Scotland, 

 particularly in the Border counties and the Lothians, it 

 is a frequent practice for the unmarried sons and daughters, 

 after they are grown up, to continue living with their 

 parents, and to work on the same farms as their fathers. 

 In these cases the united family earnings often amount 

 to a considerable sum, enabling the household to live 

 comfortably, as far as a good supply of plain food is con- 

 cerned. The following examples of the class of food eaten 

 by farm labourers in various districts in Scotland are not 

 put forward as typical of whole counties, but as illustrations 

 of the customs prevailing in the districts reported on by 

 those who undertook to make investigations : 



ABERDEEN. 



Breakfast (5. 30 a.m. for father; 8 to 9 a.m. for rest of family). 

 Brose (oatmeal and a little salt stirred up with boiling water, and 



