State of Agriculture in Northumberland. 



185 



condition and abode^ give him many advantages over the labourer 

 who has to seek work by the piece or the day, in different parts, 

 even when wages are good and work is plentiful ; and it invariably 

 happens after a hard winter, when labourers have been laid off 

 work in snow-storms, that many of them seek to be engaged as 

 hinds in the ensuing year. It cannot be said that the occupation 

 of the females is unwholesome, or beyond their strength. The 

 healthful and cheerful appearance of the girls in the turnip or 

 hay-fields of the north, and their substantial dress, would bear a 

 favourable comparison with those of any other class of female 

 operatives in the kingdom ; and their neat and respectable attire 

 on attending their places of worship on Sundays would fill with 

 astonishment, and perhaps envy, the female peasantry of Kent or 

 Surrey. 



Having so far explained and vindicated the system, I cannot 

 perhaps better show its operation and effects, and bring the sub- 

 ject to a close, than by inserting a letter, which at the request of 

 a friend I was induced to publish, along with others on agricul- 

 tural subjects, in 1831, which letter contains the substance of 

 evidence given by me in that year, before a Committee of the 

 House of Lords, on the condition of the labouring poor. 



" The manner of hiring and paying hinds, or farm-servants who are 

 householders, in the north of England, is as follows : — 



" Each man is provided with a cottage"^ and small garden upon the 

 farm, free of rent, for himself and family ; several of whom, in many 

 cases, are engaged for the year upon the farm as well as himself. The 

 wages of the hind are chiefly paid in kind : those of his son or sons, if 

 he has any able to work, either in money, or partly in money and partly 

 in grain, as best suits his convenience ; but it is generally an object 

 with him to have such a proportion of the earnings of his family paid in 

 kind as will keep him out of the market for such articles as meal, 

 potatoes, cheese, bacon, milk, &c.; and notwithstanding what the eco- 

 nomists say about money being the only proper medium of exchange for 

 labour, as well as other things, the custom of paying farm-labourers in 

 kind works well for both master and servant. In times when grain 

 sells at a high price, the conditions of the hind will cost his master more 

 than the ordinary rate of wages for day-labourers at the same season ; 

 but, on the other hand, in times of great depression, the conditions are 

 the same, though at such times the farmer would be compelled to sell 

 nearly double tlie produce to enable him to pay his labourers in cash. 

 He has also a benefit in paying for his labour in an article which 

 otherwise would cause him some expense in sending to market, and in 

 disposing of which he might incur the risk of making a bad debt with 

 his corn-merchant. 



* Many old cottages in the country were justly deserving of condemna- 

 tion ; but a laudable attention to the subject of late years has had the effect 

 of adding much to the comfort and accommodation of the dwellings of the 

 poor. 



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