122 
The Labour Bill in Fdrmimj. 
summer time and more than it is worth in the winter ; and unless 
they work well in summer all through the day, they do not give 
back what they have received. Agricultural labour must be dis- 
tinguished in this respect from most kinds of town work. The 
farm labourer cannot, like the factory hand and many artisans, 
work by artificial light. He must follow the sun, and, in a fickle 
climate like ours, cannot always even do that. Employers of 
labour in manufacturing towns, and indeed any persons who wish 
to form a fair judgment upon the wages paid to farm labourers, 
must take into account the inevitable condition under which these 
men work and farmers have to make their living. By all means 
let us sympathise with the English peasantry, where they deserve 
sympathy, as they often do in their dwellings and surroundings ; 
but our sympathy ought to be an intelligent one, based upon a 
correct appreciation of the circumstances under which they work, 
and a fair allowance for the difficulties of those for whom they 
work. It will perhaps be enough to ask this question — What is 
the system of paying operatives, like masons, whose labour is 
interfered with by weather ? And upon what system would mill- 
owners pay factory hands, if this species of work were liable to 
similar interruptions ? 
8. Poor's-rate may hardly seem admissible as an item in the 
farmer's labour bill. It is true that Boards of Guardians no 
longer give relief in order to make up insufficient wages ; but 
poor's-rate presses with peculiar force upon farmers who are the 
only employers and often the only ratepayers in a country parish. 
Sometimes, indeed, one farmer will occupy all the land in a 
parish. In a town, payment of the poor's-rate is spread over 
many different classes and interests — manufacturers, merchants, 
tradesmen, professional men, clerks. It is confined in the country 
to one class and one interest. Unhappily the present system of 
poor-relief not only gives no encouragement to thrift, but often 
discourages it; and in rural society the one employing-class, 
after paying fair wages to labourers in their prime, may after- 
wards be compelled, and they alone, to support tjiese very 
labourers, often brought to the poor-house through their own 
improvidence. We must bear in mind also the constant drain 
of labour from the country to the town. The young and the 
strong are forced to migrate, or take their labour to what they 
think a better market, l('a\ ing behind an undue proportion of 
old and weakly men. The rates clearly suffer, owing to this 
migration. 
With regard to the probable future cost of farm-labour, Mr. 
Ste])henson, of Burwell, whose communication has been already 
