Tlie Labour Bill in Farmimj. 
107 
fixed in the agreement, but a tolerably good guarantee for the 
length of it is afforded bj the provision for surrender of the cot- 
tage when the labourer ceases to work on the farm. Substan- 
tially, though not in terms, this is a yearly hiring. 
Thus piece-work is not an inelastic system, only possible in 
one or two descriptions of farm-work, but is capable of appli- 
cation to the varied round of agricultural operations. The 
Knettishall method, carefully thought out as it has been, may 
be susceptible of improvement. Each farmer, on this question, 
must think and act for himself ; and it will be all the better if he 
takes his men into his councils and talks over the subject with 
them in frank and friendly fashion, gleaning from them what 
their views are both as to principle and details. I do not know 
that I can put the labourer's view more strongly or forcibly than 
it was put by a sturdy Cambridgeshire peasant, with whom I had 
some talk. " Look here ! " he said. " What encouragement have 
I to do my very best all day long, when some chaps alongside of 
me do not do much above half what I do, and yet earn just as much 
wages? This sort of thing gives a man a bad heart, I can tell 
you." * The system of day-wages, in fact, handicaps the quick, 
conscientious worker in favour of the slow, unconscientious 
worker, and thus favours skulking all round. 
An Exning farmer, Mr. Sabin, told me he put out the following 
work to be done by the piece : turnip-hoeing, both hand and 
horse, ploughing, spreading manure, drilling, and cutting and 
cleaning turnips for sheep, at so much per acre ; and dressing 
corn with the machine, paid by quantity. This represents a con- 
siderable portion of the agricultural work which falls to be done 
throughout the year ; and the harvest, occupying four or five 
weeks, is paid for by the job also. " No body of men," Mr. Sabin 
told me, " can be better satisfied with the system than mine are." 
They draw their weekly wages at the current rate (13s.), and at 
the end of each quarter there is a settlement, when they receive 
the surplus due to them. Thus the men always have money 
accumulating, and it is paid to them in a lump, so that when it 
* Arthur Young in his ' Inquiry into the Propriety of applying Wastes to the 
better Maintenance and Support of the Poor,' has this oft-quoted passage :— " Go to 
an alehouse-kitchen of an old enclosed country, and there you will see the origin 
of poverty and poor-rates. ' For whom are we to be sober ? For whom are we to 
save ? ' (such are their questions). ' For the parish ? If I am diligent, shall I 
have leave to build a cottage ? If I am sober, shall I have laud for a cow ? If I 
am frugal, shall I have half an acre for potatoes? You offer no motives; you 
have nothing but a parish-officer and a workhouse. Briivj nic another pot! ' " 
Whether a bit of such waste as could now be given to tlie peasant would reward 
his industr}', is more than doubtful ; but if we give him the opportunity of earning 
higher wages by greater industry, and thus of saving money, surely a much more 
adequate motive is at once supplied to him for the exercise of diligence, sobriety, 
and frugality. 
