SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



to I4J-. bd. per week, and those of a carter or shepherd, who work longer hours, 

 to 1 5J. bd. or 1 6^.^"^ Average earnings have more recently risen to i 5J. kd. 

 and those of carters and stockmen proportionately."* Wages in the country, 

 instead of following prices, have been upheld by the increased standard of 

 comfort, and by competition with the towns owing to the modern fluidity of 

 labour. Of course the Dorset agricultural labourer does not receive all his 

 earnings in cash ; sometimes he only gets loj. in money, though the average 

 is certainly i2j. a week."* Dorset is one of the counties where money wages 

 are lowest, and ' allowances ' greatest, and of recent years piece-work has 

 become very important on the large farms."" This system of ' allowances ' 

 certainly is not economically sound, but it has always existed, and probably its 

 evils are at a minimum in a county where the land is owned by large pro- 

 prietors. It has always been the big landowners of Dorset who have set 

 example in improved cottages, though the movement has never been general, 

 and Mr. Spencer considered that there had been little improvement since the 

 days of Mr. Stanhope."'' More recently the attention of sanitary authorities 

 has been directed to the subject of over-crowding, bad drainage, and ' the 

 smoke nuisance ' ; and any defects are freely commented upon."* 



Other improvements of a social nature have also raised the condition of 

 the Dorset labourer. Drink-money is now generally given instead of the 

 beer or cider itself,"' so that if the Dorset peasant ' is terribly addicted to 

 beer ' '"'' he is at least not encouraged by his employer. 



Women, even twelve years ago, very seldom worked in the fields,'"^ 

 because the earnings of the labourer no longer rendered it necessary ; now- 

 adays it would be regarded as an anomaly. The hiring-fair tends to become 

 a picturesque survival ; it is fast dying out '"' as the modern, more educated 

 labourer can find work through advertisements, instead of being dependent 

 on the chances of one day. But except in the northern and western parts of 

 the county it has left its mark in yearly engagements, which may be more 

 likely to lead to continuous service than in the days of annual hiring-fairs, 

 when it became almost a custom for labourers to change their employers.'"' 

 The advantage of good clubs, either local or branches of national ones, is 

 becoming more and more recognized,'"* and membership is not so uncommon 

 as it used to be ; but, unfortunately, it is still a point in which theory is in 

 advance of practice. 



'" Pari. Accounts and Papers, 1893, xxxr, 14, 29. 



'" Ibid. 1905. 'Earnings of Agric. Labour.' Second report by Wilson Fox, 36. 



"^ Ibid. 27 (calculation for 1903). 



'"' Ibid. 4 and 29, 18 and 21. 



'" Ibid. 1893, XXXV, 30. 



"' Ibid. 31. "'Ibid. 13. 



""" Journ. of Bath and West of Engl. Agrlc. Soc. (Ser. 2), viii, 222. 



'"' Par/. Accounts and Papers, 1893, xxxv, 10. 



""Ibid. 1905. ' Earnings of Agric. Labour,' 13. 



«" Ibid. 1893, xxxv, 8. *» Ibid. 18. 



263 



