12 THE RURAL PROBLEM 



(i) It is commonly supposed that the agricultural labourer 

 adds considerably to his wages bj^ keeping pigs and poultry 

 and by selling or consuming the produce of his garden. The 

 description already given of the hours worked by the labourer 

 for his employer must be sufficient to convince the most 

 optimistic that there is not much time left him to work for 

 himself. Not infrequently he lives some distance from his 

 work ; and it is not by any means certain that he has the 

 necessary land. The demand for allotments is strong evidence 

 of the insufficiency or lack of cottage gardens ; and this 

 demand is still unsatisfied in many villages.* 



Moreover, allotments are generally only available at some 

 distance from the labourer's cottage, which still further 

 limits his time of working there. Only a minority of labourers 

 possess either pigs or poultry. Any calculation as to the 

 amount labourers actually manage to earn apart from their 

 wages must be largely guess-work ; but the best information 

 lends support to the belief that on the average only a few 

 pence a week are added to the wage in this way, and in 

 vast numbers of cases nothing at all. 



(ii) With regard to the earnings of the members of the 

 family, the older sons sometimes find work on the farm and 

 contribute from their earnings to the family income. The 

 wages of boys on farms are low, and the tied cottage is often 

 the means of exposing boys to the necessity of accepting 

 wages lower than usual, or even, in well-authenticated cases, 

 of working for nothing at all.f But the fact that the agri- 



* See Appendix I) for facts re Allotments. 



t A, aged 15, works for a farmer who estimates his wage at 6s. per 

 week, but pays him no cash, and says the cottage in which the boy's 

 father (who is a cripple) lives is worth 6s. The boy fell off a cart, and 

 was away from work 10 days. Rent had to be paid during this 

 period ; the family was too frightened to apply for compensation for 

 the boy, who was not insured. 



B, 16i years of age, works for a farmer who values his work at, 7s., 

 gives him 4s., and takes .'5s. as rent for cottage in which the father, 

 who is a consumptive, lives. The farmer threatens to turn the 

 family out if the boy docs not work for him. The mother spent a 

 week tramping round to try to find another cottage, but could find 

 none. As result of drinking water from a pond adjoining the cottage, 

 there was a case of typhoid (which cost the ratepayers £40 for treatment 

 in an isolation hospital), so water is now carried to the cottage from 

 a well 27. r > yards distant. 



