482 Agricultural Hirings in Scotland. 



men in addition to their cash wages usually get free cottages 

 and allowances of oatmeal, milk, potatoes, and perhaps coals, 

 or coals carted free, and unmarried men get their board and 

 lodging except in the Border Counties and the Lothians, 

 where the system prevails of engaging families by the year. 



In most cases unmarried men who are lodged and fed by 

 their employers are hired by the half-year, and married men 

 living in cottages (and with these are generally included 

 shepherds and men in charge of cattle and the head plough- 

 men) are engaged by the year. But there are many exceptions ;. 

 in some districts the engagements are half-yearly for all 

 classes, whether married or single, in others yearly, in others a 

 mixed system. 



In the Border Counties and in the Lothians most of the 

 farm servants are hired by the year, and live in cottages on 

 or close to the farm. They are usually hired by families, the 

 sons and daughters living at home with their parents and 

 working together on the same farm, the men receiving an 

 " upstanding wage," and the women being paid so much a day 

 when they present themselves for work. In most of these 

 counties there are districts where unmarried men are hired 

 by the year and half-year, and are lodged and boarded by their 

 employers. In other parts of Scotland the proportion of 

 the unmarried men hired is usually larger than that of the 

 married men, but the number of married men that a farmer 

 can engage depends on the cottage accommodation at his 

 disposal, as they are always provided with cottages on the 

 farm, the English village system being practically unknown. 



Several systems for lodging and boarding unmarried men 

 are in existence. Frequently they are lodged and boarded 

 in the farmhouses, but in some in the houses of the married 

 men. Another system is to lodge them in a bothy and pro- 

 vide food for them either in the kitchen or in the bothy, 

 but in some instances the men lodging in a bothy find and 

 prepare their own food. In the last case they usually receive 

 a certain allowance of meal and milk, and sometimes 

 potatoes. 



