656 



The Farm Worker in Scotland. 



[Oct., 



THE FARM WORKER IN SCOTLAND. 



Permanent male farm workers in Scotland may be classified 

 as follows : — (1) stewards, grieves or foremen, (2) ploughmen, 

 (3) cattlemen, (4) shepherds, and (5) orramen, including all 

 workers not in charge of animals, and as a general rule a 

 further distinction must be made between married and single 

 workers. ^Married farm w^orkers are treated as a separate class 

 from the single men and lads. The most important class of 

 worker is the married ploughman, w^hose wages and .allow- 

 ances and hours of work usually determine the corresponding 

 earnings and w-orking hours of the other classes. 



Practically the whole of the farm work is performed by the 

 regular farm staif. A few casual labourers are employed at busy 

 seasons, and during hay time and harvest and for potato plant- 

 ing and lifting many women and children are temporarily 

 engaged . 



Housi:??.g. — Almost every moderate-sized farm is provided 

 with one or more cottages, which are generally occupied by 

 married men on the permanent staff of the farm. A farm 

 worker's son working on a farm with his father is frequently 

 hired under the " double binding " system, common in the 

 south-western counties, and unless he can find accommodation 

 in the family cottage, is housed in a loft or attic in the farm 

 buildings, but more often with other single men and lads in a 

 separate room, or cottage with one or two rooms, known as 

 the " bothy." Generally, arrangements are made for meals 

 to be cocked in the farm houses and for the bothy to be cleaned 

 up by a woman once a week. Sometimes, however, the men 

 and lads make their own arrangements and take turns to pe^-- 

 form their ow^n cooking, make beds, light fires, and tidy and 

 clean up. Wom^en workers who do not live at home with their 

 parents are usually lodged and boarded in the farm house. 



Period of Engagement. — In the greater part of the country 

 the married men are engaged for the year, the term extending 

 either from the 28th May (Whit Sunday) or the 28th November 

 ''Martinmas). The half-yearly term is popular in some district'^, 

 but mostly amongst single men who are less willing to bind 

 themselves for the whole year. There are very few weekly 

 engagements — excepting amongst the few casual workers — and 

 even women workers are usually engaged on yearly or half- 

 yearly contracts. 



