676 The Farm Labourers of England and Wales. 
farm labourers, because by cultivating them they lose regular 
employment, cow plots, which involve very little work beyond 
what the wife can do, are almost always beneficial. 
The question of small holdings other than cow plots and 
allotments was not one of the points of inquiry committed to 
the Assistant Commissioners ; but in some of the reports more 
or less is said on the subject. As a rule, small holdings appear 
to be successful in the cheese-making, fruit-growing, and market- 
gardening districts, but not commonly so where the ordinary 
system of farming is pursued, unless the returns from the land 
are supplemented by earnings at some kind of work outside the 
holdings. 
With respect to live stock kept by labourers, it is hardly 
necessary to say that, except in the cow-pasture districts, the 
pig is the only animal kept by any considerable proportion of 
the farm labourers, while men employed with horses or cattle 
are frequently debarred from having one, pork or bacon, either 
in part payment of wages or at wholesale prices, being some- 
times provided instead. Fowls and bees are kept in a few in- 
stances in most parishes ; but generally both are sadly neglected, 
even where there are capital opportunities for doing well with 
them. 
Other Points and General Conclusions. 
The remaining heads of inquiry must be dealt with briefly. 
As to the extent to which agricultural labourers belong to bene- 
fit societies, and the character of those which are most favoured 
in the several districts, the details are multitudinous. It is 
probably safe to say that a large majority of the young labourers 
belong to a benefit society of some kind, while too many of the 
old men, who formerly belonged to one of the miserable little 
public-house clubs which usually failed before their members 
needed help most, are not in any such society. Fortunately the 
large registered societies are nearly everywhere gaining ground ; 
but there are still too many of the little local clubs in the 
stability of which no confidence can be felt. There is one form 
of insurance which is undesirably increasing among the agricul- 
tural labourers in some parts of the country — that of insuring 
the lives of their children. In almost every village an agent of 
the Prudential Society is to be found. 
The only counties of England and Wales in which a trade 
union among agricultural labourers is mentioned in the reports 
as still in existence are Warwickshire, Somersetshire, Lin- 
colnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, and Brent ; and in all but 
Norfolk and Suffolk the adherents are said to be very few. Even 
