HOW TO GROW GOOD ORCHARDS. 355 



got a piece of work done, yet, by over-hours, for 

 which they are rightly paid, not, as in the country, 

 wholly by cider, but in money, the business is 

 managed, and the workman can afford extra meat 

 and bread, by which his worn muscles are truly reno- 

 vated, and not merely stimulated to frantic action 

 as by drink. The great rise in the price of meat, 

 even before cattle disease became rife, is due to 

 the cause that so much more meat has, within 

 the last five years, been eaten by the British work- 

 man. In this advance, however, the farm labourer 

 has had no part ; he rarely gets meat twice a week, 

 while all this time his wages have advanced so much 

 as 25 per cent., which rise, in nine cases out of ten, is 

 only looked upon as a boon, inasmuch as it enables 

 the recipient to " enjoy himself," which simply means 

 he has more to spend at the public-house. 



We conclude, as the result of experience, that 

 each sack of corn that finds its way to market from 

 a cider county costs Is. (or 3d. per bushel) in drink, 

 which, though it is produced on the farm, might yet 

 have been sold to produce that amount. 



"Would it then not be better to sell such farm 

 produce, and, by giving extra money instead of 

 drink to the labourers, and so, by allowing him the 

 option of taking less drink but more meat, gradually 

 to withdraw him from the temptations to get drunk, 

 which beset him under the present system? For, 

 while we feel quite sure that the morbid craving for 

 the public-house has commenced with drinking on the 

 farm, we may be certain that if by any means we can 

 check this system, it will ultimately be a great gain 

 to both master and man. 



