Sept. 1894.] 



PARLIAMENTAKY PUBLICATIONS. 



101 



Ireland. The details are arranged in chronological order from 

 1862, the date of " The Children's Employment Commission." 

 That Commission was confined to England and Wales. It was 

 followed in 1867 by " The Commission on the Employment of 

 " Children, Young Persons, and Women in Agriculture." The 

 Reports of these two Commissions form the subject of a detailed 

 Memorandum dealing with the extent to which women and 

 children were employed in agricidture, systems of hiring, period 

 of engagement, hours of work, wages and earnings, housing of 

 the agricultural labourer, allotments, gardens, and benefit socie- 

 ties. The Memorandum is accompanied by Appendices, giving 

 (1) {statistical tables showing the number, sex, age, etc. of agri- 

 cultural labourers ; (2) rents and accommodation ; (3) labourers' 

 expenditures ; (4) females employed in agriculture — their number, 

 nature of work, wages ; (5) allotments and gardens ; (6) hiring 

 and period of engagement ; (7) hours of work in different coun- 

 ties ; (8) wages and earnings of agricultural labourers in different 

 counties. 



The condition of the agricultural labourer, as shown by the 

 Reports and Minutes of Evidence of the Royal Commission on 

 Agricultural Interests, 1879-1882 (the Richmond Commission), 

 is set forth in similar detail. A third Memorandum deals in 

 detail with the census returns of 1871, 1881, and 1891, so far 

 as they bear upon agriculture. Tables are elaborated, showing 

 the numbers of " wage-earners " and " agriculturists," their per- 

 centage, class, sex, age, and ratio to population and area, in the 

 different registration and agricultural divisions in the years 

 mentioned. 



The section of the volume dealing with England and Wales 

 is terminated by a return by the Board of Agriculture showing 

 the cultivated area, the acreage under certain crops, and the 

 number of sheep and cattle in registration sub-districts and dis- 

 tricts of inquiry in 1891, followed by a summary statement 

 showing for the several districts of inquiry the area under cer- 

 tain crops, the number of cattle and sheep thereon, and the ratio 

 of these to the cultivated area, and concluding with three tables 

 in which the several districts are arranged in order in respect 

 of the relative importance of certain crops and descriptions of 

 stock to the cultivated area. The first table gives separately 

 the proportion of arable land, white corn, cattle, and sheep, per 

 100 acres of cultivated land. The second table deals similarly 

 with wheat, barley, oats, and roots, and the third with cows, 

 heifers, and other cattle. This terminates the portion of the 

 Appendix devoted to England and W ales. 



Section II. is devoted to Scotland, aud contains four Memo- 

 randa. The first deals with the Report of the Royal Commission 

 on the Employment of Children, Young Persons, and Women in 

 Agriculture, 1867. The second Memorandum, with Appendices, 

 deals with the Reports of the Richmond Commission, 1879-1882, 

 and refers to the condition of the agricultural labourer, supply 



