234 A Walk from 



I think the American reader, who is personally 

 acquainted with the habits and domestic economy of 

 our farm laborers, will regard this estimate of their 

 expenditures as quite moderate. I have assumed, in 

 both cases, that no time is lost in the week on account 

 of sickness, or of weather, or lack of employment ; and 

 all the incidental expenses I have included in the four 

 general items given. It must also be conceded that 

 our farm hands do not average more than 24 English 

 shillings, or $5 76c., per week, through all the seasons 

 of the year. The amount of expenditure allowed in 

 the foregoing estimate enables them to support them- 

 selves and their families comfortably, if they are tem- 

 perate and industrious ; to clothe and educate their 

 children ; to make bright and pleasant homes, with well- 

 spread tables, and to have respectable seats in church 

 on the sabbath. On the other hand, we have assigned 

 to the English agricultural laborer what he would 

 regard a proportionately comfortable allowance for the 

 wants of a week. We may not have divided it cor- 

 rectly, but the total of the items is as great as he would 

 expect to expend on the current necessities of seven 

 days. I doubt if one in a thousand of the farm 

 laborers of Great Britain lays out more than the sum 

 we have allotted for one week's food, rent, and fuel 

 and clothes. We then reach this result of the balance- 



