650 



EEPORT — 1882. 



and easily obtains an occasional day to get in the all-important hay crops of his 

 orchard and mead, or to empty the rude outbuilding and spread its contents upon 

 his little holding. With the third cow, expenses out of pocket begin. Few wives 

 can now manage without a boy to help, and the husband, obliged to be more and 

 more at home, must substitute task work for day work. Or he will set up a pony 

 and cart and begin dealing — first, as a higgler, or dealer in butter, eggs, poultry, 

 and garden produce, which he buys of the cottager and sells in the market town — 

 and later, as a general dealer on a larger scale. He employs his spare time in 

 carting turf, fuel, wood, chalk, &c., for his neighbours at 5s. a ton. But the 

 middleman's business is not without its di-awbacks, and the careful housewife 

 regards with some anxiety the social habits aud long absences which it involves. 



The next and most important stage is reached when the cottager can rent about 

 five acres of meadow and stock it with three or four cows, a couple of sows, and 

 can rear a heifer and sell two calves, and fat 10 to 12 pigs yearly. An advance 

 beyond this point will involve hired labour, unless the children are well-grown and 

 helpful. Here the cottager often hesitates, for the thrifty stop short of hiring 

 labour. Probably he has reached the limit of his out-buildings and of his power 

 to winter stock. But if he advance, the next stage is a 'little place' of 8 to 12 

 acres, and the man having then become practically a tenant-farmer, passes out of 

 the limits of this paper. 



By the foregoing details the use and value of these wastes and of the rights 

 over them will have been indicated generally. We may now try to trace the 

 financial results. Precise financial results wiU hardly be expected, for the two 

 livelihoods of the cottager, viz., the ordinary and that arising out of his common 

 rights, must intermingle inextricably. But by isolating the stock-keeping and 

 then separating oft' the actual monetary transactions in that branch, results of 

 approximate accuracy may be obtained, and the value of the whole be inferred 

 from the profits of a part. The following table, the result of much consultation 

 with competent cottage stock-keepers, shows the approximate profits on each head 

 of stock ; and anyone desirous of pursuing the subject further will find, the author 

 believes, that by applying this as a standard to any given head of cottager's stock 

 for a given time he will not overrate the profits actually realizable. The amoimts 

 are small in themselves, but large when compared with a labourer's weekly wage. 

 They show a large percentage on the outlaj% but the laljour and superintendence 

 are not charged ; the stock-keeping is regarded as added to the cottager's living. 



Estimated (out of pocket) Costs and Profits of Cottagers' Stock. 



Cost to Rear 



(If wintered) G«. 



(If wintered) 9«. 



(If wintered) 9*. 



(If wintered) 9«. 



(If wintered) 30 j. 



f Wintering — say 50s. i 

 1 a winter, if no land I 



Wintering — say 50«. 

 a winter, if no land 



Average Profit 



(See next entry) 



J Sale price (unless 

 I wintered) 



j Sale price (unless 

 I wintered) 



I Two yearlings 

 1 every three years 



(See next entry) 



(See next entries) 



