266 BRITISH RURAL LIFE AND LABOUR. 



are allowed from a quart to three pints of cider per day. 

 This is valued at about eighteenpence per week. Many 

 farmers think, as I do, that this system is bad, and should 

 be abolished, and the value, in money, of the cider given 

 to the labourers. But, as a rule, the men themselves 

 are averse to the change. At harvest-time they have 

 double wages, or they have meat and drink at the farmer's 

 table as long as harvest lasts. But I am afraid that, 

 whilst wages have advanced, the labourers have very 

 much deteriorated in their work. It is a general com- 

 plaint with farmers (and I believe they have cause to 

 complain) that they cannot get the young labourers to do 

 as much work, or to do it as well, as was done by the older 

 men. There is not the desire to give satisfaction ; they 

 do not take pride in their work, and evince a tendency 

 to scamp it. This is very different from what I can re- 

 member of the past times. I think one reason for this 

 is the abolition of the system of apprenticeship, for the 

 different manner of master and man has brought about 

 neglect of interests on both sides a state of things pre- 

 judicial to both." 



In other parts of Devon, including Totnes and its 

 neighbourhood, we ascertained from personal inquiry 

 that many wages were eleven or twelve shillings a week, 

 with the usual cider allowance, making, including the 

 estimated cider value, twelve and sixpence or thirteen 

 and sixpence per week. Again, around Tiverton and 

 Halberton wages ranged from ten to twelve shillings, 

 in some cases with cider added ; in others with an 

 additional money payment in lieu of it. The im- 

 portant districts in the north of Devon also showed 

 signs of improvement, as our inquiries disclosed. In a 

 very interesting communication from a doctor who was 

 also a magistrate at Bideford, the writer said : 



" I am able to give you some information respecting 

 the peasant life in this part of Devon, from observations 

 extending over nearly forty years. The condition of the 

 agricultural labourer" in north-west Devon has, during 

 this period, improved greatly, and his wages have risen 

 in a greater proportionate degree than those of the mechanics 

 of the district. Some thirty years ago seven shillings 

 a week was the average money payment to our farm 

 labourers. They had some perquisites which might have 

 been worth a shilling a week, making the entire earnings 

 equal to about eight shillings a week each. At present 



