Condition of the English Agricultural Labourer, 1871. 347 
and this exclusive of pension, and supposing; short service to be 
adopted ; while at the end of the term of service there is no diffi- 
culty in obtaining remunerative employment, if we may take the 
experience of Captain Walter, the admirable commanding officer 
of the corps of Commissionaires in London, who says in his last 
report, May, 1870 : — " The wages of the men continue to increase. 
They can now readily obtain the highest rate for their various 
services that the labour market affords, and the applications of 
employers are still so much in excess of the supply that during 
the last twelve months nearly 100 more situations might have been 
filled had that additional number of men been available. It seems 
to me that there is always an abundance of employment for men, 
provided they are sober, honest, and capable of giving a day's 
work for a day's wage." And while these extraneous sources 
have widened the field of employment, the use of machinery, 
which has eased the burden of toil, has not lessened the demand 
for labour in agriculture itself. Improved cultivation, more 
general and thorough management of root-crops, the extension 
of sheep farming, and winter feeding of stock, induced b}- the 
high prices of wool and meat, have all tended to increase em- 
ployment on the best-managed farms, and to equalise it during 
the different preiods of the year. On this point, Mr. Culley, 
writing of Oxfordshire farming, says*: — "The greater use of 
machinery and the increase in the size of farms, which may be 
said to run in couples, have not only conferred a great benefit 
on the farmer, and the countiy at large, by increasing its pro- 
ductive power, without, at any rate as yet, diminishing in any 
appreciable degree the number of persons for whom agricul- 
tural labour finds employment, but they have also tended to 
equalise the manual labour required during the different seasons 
of the year, and to provide more skilled labour at higher wages 
for industrious and intelligent labourers, than which no greater 
benefits could be conferred on the agricultural class." We may 
remark also that the use of machinery and the greater develop- 
ment of stock breeding and feeding not only equalise the demand 
for labour at different seasons, but also introduce higher rates of 
pay for the service rendered. In many of the reports from 
which we quote, the carter, the shepherd, and the cowman are 
described as receiving wages varying from 2s. to 2>s. per week, 
and other allowances, in addition to the average wages of their 
class ; and a new name appears in many returns from farms, viz. 
the "engine-man," earning about I85. or 2O5. per week. Where 
the steam-plough is used it is also a general custom to give from 
Is. to 2s. a week extra wage, not only to the engine-driver, but to 
* Second Report, 1869, p. SO. 
2 A 2 
