184 State of Agriculture in Northumberland. 



on the farm idle^ when many hands are required for untying 

 and carrying forward, to the man at the feeding-board, the sheaves 

 before being threshed ; and for removing and dressing the corn 

 as it comes from the winnowing-machine, — a description of work 

 which women are quite adequate to, — several hands are necessary 

 besides the every-day labourers on the farm. In the absence of 

 villages to supply occasional assistance, as is the case with a large 

 portion of the farms in the district, each one must depend upon 

 its own resources. A necessity is thus created for having a certain 

 disposable force of women and boys at command, which has 

 given rise to the custom of having no ploughmen or labourers 

 living in the farm-houses. Each farm is provided with an adequate 

 number of cottages with gardens attached, and every man who is 

 engaged by the year has one of these cottages ; his family, however 

 numerous, commonly finds employment, but one he is bound to 

 provide, to answer at all times his master's call, and to work at 

 stipulated wages. To this engagement the odious name of bond- 

 age has been given ; and I am induced to notice it the more par- 

 ticularly because it has of late years attracted attention, and because 

 attempts were made a few years ago to stir up the hinds, as 

 such hired householders are called, to a resistance to the measure. 

 These attempts Avere, to a certain degree, successful, and re- 

 sistance was made by the hinds to being hound to provide a girl, 

 or boy as it may be, to work on the farm, but it was not yielded 

 to by the farmers in any one case that I know of, except one, that 

 of Mr. Jobson, of ChilUngham Newtown, whose local situation 

 rendered him independent of it; he hired his men at certain 

 wages, with regular employment for the year ; and, singular 

 enough, before the end of it, they one and all desired to be placed 

 on their former footing. Where the hind has one daughter or 

 m.Ore there can be no hardship, because, when called to work out, 

 which, during the summer months, is pretty constant, she is earn- 

 ing wages ; and when she is not so employed she has the domestic 

 occupation of the family to engage her. In the case of a hind 

 v/ho has no children sufficient for the purpose, there may be 

 hardship in having a servant to hire, provided her services are not 

 required at vacant times in his family. But even then where is 

 the hardship in the case ? If the advantage of the system be not 

 equivalent to the hardship comiplained of, why does he not 

 abandon it and betake himself to a more independent life, hiring 

 a cottage in a village and taking his chance for piece-work, in the 

 quantity of employment which is to be found in draining, em- 

 banking, fences, roads, &c., throughout the country ? And why 

 should that be called bondage which is an engagement for a year, 

 terminable by either party at the end of it ? The fact is, that the 

 certain employment and the wages of the hind^ and his settled 



