ALLOTMENTS. 251 



Allotments, when obtainable, were provided either by 

 the landowner, and in such cases the rents were generally 

 fair and reasonable, or by the farmer who let off part of his 

 own holding whether he was himself a freeholder or only 

 a tenant of the squire for " potato-ground," as it was 

 synonymously termed. Sometimes a lord of a manor has 

 allocated a portion of ground for allotments, charging a 

 uniform rent. One would naturally suppose that farmers 

 would generously concede a portion of ground as an 

 encouragement to their men, and as something varying 

 the monotonous sphere of the daily labours of the latter 

 for the masters on the best possible terms. Instead 

 of that, however, in large numbers of instances, they 

 reaped considerable profit on this sub-letting charging 

 three and even four times the proportion of the rent 

 actually paid. In one case into which we personally 

 inquired the farmer paid his landlord three pounds an 

 acre for his farm, and charged his men for their little 

 portions at the rate of twelve pounds an acre. And 

 even the measurement sometimes went against the men : 

 what was called the eighth of an acre being less. More- 

 over, cases were not by any means infrequent of the 

 labourers being refused allowance for the value of their 

 unexhausted improvements. Fallow or grass land was 

 taken over in a quite barren state, and, after being 

 brought into a high state of cultivation, was taken away 

 without the smallest compensation for manures and 

 tillage supplied by the poor workers. The farmer at 

 times has alleged a reason for changing the land, and 

 has given a piece of fresh uncultivated and unmanured 

 ground in exchange for the carefully tilled allotment. 

 The amount of ground available in this way being 

 limited sometimes very strictly limited the labourer 

 has no remedy. He is quite in the hands of the farmer. 

 If he requires an allotment he must pay the possessor's 

 terms for it ; and there is no appeal. 



There were, of course, generous exceptions. Some- 



