JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
December  13.  1900. 
5  6 
fiardeners’ Charitable  and  Provident  Institutions. 
The  Gardeners’  Eoyal  Benevolent  Institution.  —  Secretary, 
Mr.  G.  J.  Ingram,  175,  Victoria  Street,  S.W. 
United  Horticultural  Benefit  and  Provident  Society. — Secretary, 
Mr.  W.  Collins,  9,  Martindale  Road,  Balham,  London,  S.W. 
Royal  Gardeners’  Orphan  Fund. — Secretary,  Mr,  Brian  Wynne, 
8,  Danes  Inn,  Strand,  London,  W.C. 
A  RECENT  case  in  the  Scarborough  County  Court,  although  it 
ended  in  a  decision  favourable  to  the  employer,  is  a  further  illustration 
of  the  difficulty  which  the  present  day  farmer  has  to  contend  with. 
A  servant  engaged  himself  for  board  and  lodgings  and  £20  in  money 
to  act  as  waggoner  from  January  9th  to  Martinmas,  a  period  of 
ten  and  a  half  months.  The  man  apparently  tired  of  his  job  or 
thought  he  could  better  himself,  and  in  July,  after  giving  a  formal 
month  8  notice  left  his  place,  and  has  now  sued  his  employer  for  the 
wages  due  up  to  the  time  he  left. 
It  seems  that  when  he  first  mooted  the  question,  his  master  after 
consideration  consented  that  he  should  leave,  but  conditionally  on 
his  forleiting  £2  of  the  wages  due.  Con-idering  that  the  period  still 
to  be  served  was  almost  entirely  a  busy  one,  and  included  the  harvest 
month,  we  think  that  Mr.  Monkman,  the  employer  in  question,  was 
behaving  in  a  very  liberal  manner  in  offering  to  rescind  the  contract 
on  those  terms. 
The  man,  however,  whether  legally  advised  or  not  we  are  not 
aware,  persisted  in  leaving  and  claiming  the  full  wage  due,  evidently 
being  strongly  convinced  that  the  law  was  on  his  side.  That  this 
was  not  so  anyone  conversant  with  the  law  of  master  and  servant  is  of 
course  aware,  for  in  contracts  at  so  much  per  annum  between  a  farmer 
and  a  purely  agricultural  servant  the  ordinary  rule  of  a  mouth’s 
warning  or  a  month’s  wages  in  lieu  thereof  has  no  legal  effect,  and 
this  applies  to  female  servants  who  are  engaged  to  milk  just  as  it 
applies  to  the  men.  The  judge  gave  a  decision  entirely  favourable  to 
Mr.  Monkman,  and  the  man  lost  a  clean  £8  by  not  assenting  to  his 
master’s  terms. 
Judge  Raikes,  in  giving  julgmeat,  spoke  of  these  contracts 
as  antiquated  though  still  legally  finding,  and  suggested  that 
unwillingness  to  enter  into  such  long  eng^gements  was  a  potent 
cause  of  the  scarcity  of  farm  hands  and  the  continuous  migration 
from  (he  country  to  the  towns.  We  think,  however,  that  it  this 
ancient  custom  of  hiring  by  the  year,  “antiquated”  though  it  be, 
should  be  clone  away  with  and  weekly  or  monthly  engagements  be 
substituted,  the  farmers  of  Yorkshire  and  other  districts  where  the 
custom  now  prevails  will  find  themselves  worse  off  than  ever. 
Meanwhile  in  some  parts  a  gradual  change  is  already  in  progress. 
For  instance,  as  Yorkshire  and  Notts  hirings  take  place  at  Martinma-, 
and  Lincolnshire  at  May  Day,  the  e  is  a  growing  tendency  in  the 
districts  forming  the  borders  of  these  counties  towards  half-yearly 
contracts.  The  men  having  recently  been  in  a  position  to  dictate 
terms  at  Martinmas,  have  refuseil  in  considerable  numbers  to  engage 
themselves  for  longer  than  until  May,  and  when  May  has  arrived 
the  masters,  anxious  to  go  back  to  the  Martinmas  custom  as  being 
more  advantageous  to  them,  would  engage  men  until  Martinmas 
again,  hoping  at  that  time  to  be  able  to  engage  men  tor  a  year. 
Engagements  for  six  months  have  thus  become  quite  common,  and 
as  the  servants  have  been  thus  able  to  get  two  holidays  in  the  year 
insteal  of  one,  whilst  the  wages  have  been  rapidly  rising,  it  is  hardly 
likely  that  they  will  return  to  the  old  system  as  long  as  circumstances 
leave  the  control  of  matters  in  their  hands. 
Judge  Raikes  at  Scarborough  made  a  suggestion  that  it  would  be 
desirable  that  farmers  when  hiring  iheir  yearly  men  should  make  a 
stipulation  that  the  wage  should  be  divided  into  five  portions,  a  double 
•poition  to  be  allotted  to  the  quarter  containing  the  harvest  period. 
As  long  as  the  law  remains  as  it  is,  we  hardly  see  the  necessity 
for  such  a  course,  though  if  servants  should  be  enabled  to  impose 
on  farmers  new  conditions  enabling  them  to  break  their  engagements 
.prematurely,  the  latter  will  have  to  adopt  some  such  safeguard  in  self¬ 
defence.  But  there  is  another  reason  why  a  clause  of  this  kind  in  an 
agreement  would  be  beneficial. 
It  often  occurs  that  a  servant  through  not  getting  on  with  the 
foreman,  not  being  suited  with  the  horses  he  has  to  work,  or  not 
finding  the  board  to  his  mind,  becomes  dissatisfied,  or  as  he  terms 
it,  “unsettled,”  and  wishes  to  leave  his  employment.  Under  such 
circumstances  he  almost  invariably  chooses  a  busy  time  during  which 
to  make  his  request  to  be  allowed  to  depart,  chiefly  because  he  will 
then  stand  a  better  chance  of  getting  a  job  elsewhere.  The  farmer 
of  course  may  curtly  refuse  and  hold  him  to  his  contract,  but  there  are 
several  reasons  why  he  should  not  do  so,  the  chief  being  that  a  surly, 
dissatisfied  man  is  as  bad  as  a  jibbing  horse,  and  if  he  likes  can  make 
his  services  to  be  of  little  real  value  without  giving  his  master  ground 
for  legal  action  ;  also,  that  he  may  repay  his  grudge  against  the 
master  by  neglecting  or  ill-treating  the  animals  in  his  charge.  We 
have  known  actual  cases  where  such  has  been  done,  with  the  result 
that  eventually,  on  the  anxious  representations  of  the  foreman,  the 
master  has  been  obliged  for  his  own  interest  to  let  the  recalcitrant 
servant  have  his  way. 
If  a  servant  knew  that  he  would  be  paid  much  higher  in  proportion 
for  harvest  or  similarly  busy  periods,  he  would  be  far  less  likely  to 
choose  inconvenient  times  for  demanding  his  liberty  at  short  notice, 
which,  not  being  legally  obliged,  the  employer  need  not  accede  to, 
but  very  often  does  for  reasons  similar  to  those  we  have  just  been 
describing. 
These  yearly  contracts,  however,  are  not  in  every  way  most 
favourable  to  the  farmer,  for  it  not  infrequently  occurs  that  a  servant 
falls  ill,  and  if  his  illness  be  a  temporary  one,  even  although  recovery 
he  long  and  tedious,  the  employer  Is  legally  bound  to  feed  and  nurse 
the  servant  round  again — z.e,,i  until  the  expiration  of  the  contract 
period,  and  pay  his  wages  in  full  at  that  time,  although  he  may  have 
done  little  or  no  work  for  the  money.  So  long  as  the  servant  is  not 
permanent  y  disabled  he  may  claim  to  stay  his  year  out  and  get 
his  wages. 
Minimising  the  probability  of  such  cases  occurring  is  the  only 
set-off  the  farmer  has  to  balance  against  the  disadvantages  of  short 
te'm  hirings,  and  we  are  sure  that  thry  will  not  give  up  the  old 
system  of  annual  engagements  without  an  effort  to  retain  it.  It  is 
now  in  considerable  danger,  but  if  employers  make  a  determination  to 
engag'*  as  many  men  as  possible  for  yearly  terms  it  will  not  die  out 
yet  awhile. 
Work  on  tlie  Home  Farm. 
Rain  every  day,  though  varied  in  quantity,  has  almost  put  an  end  to 
outdoor  work  for  the  past  week.  Root,  i.e.,  Swede,  pulling  and  storing 
has  been  impossible,  and  what  little  ploughing  has  been  done  has 
proceeded  under  great  discomfort  to  man  and  beast. 
Conditions  have  been  quite  unfit  for  threshing,  and  as  the  weather 
appears  to  have  been  pretty  general  throughout  the  country,  it  is  to 
be  hoped  that  the  enforced  stoppage  of  supplies  may  do  a  little  to 
strengthen  the  grain  trade. 
A  little  work  has  been  done  at  the  hedges  by  men  who,  being  at  piece 
work,  brave  the  weather  rather  than  lose  time,  but  it  has  been  a  difficult 
matter  to  find  suitable  employment  for  the  day  labourers.  A  wet  day 
now  and  then  may  be  utilised  in  cleaning  up  the  premises  under  cover, 
but  a  week  is  too  much  to  occupy  in  such  a  way.  The  sacks  are  mostly 
in  use,  besides  which  they  need  no  repairs  at  present.,  having  been 
looked  over  during  the  wet  period  in  harvest.  A  few  Potato  baskets 
which  had  lost  their  bottoms  have  been  repaired  with  sacking,  which 
will  wear  as  long  as  the  handles,  and  the  poultry  houses  have  been 
cleaned  and  well  whitewashed. 
A  supply  of  paint  ready  to  hand  may  be  used  to  advantage  to  paint 
over  the  implements  which  are  not  in  use  at  this  season  ;  gates  also 
which  may  not  now  be  necessary  for  present  nse  can  also  be  quickly 
fetched  home  and  a  coat  applied  to  them  under  cover.  For  gates, 
though  it  is  more  unsightly,  we  prefer  black  varnish  to  paint,  as  it  is 
cheaper,  turns  water  well,  and  is  very  durable. 
Stock  are  doing  very  well;  we  never  saw  sheep  make  greater  or 
better  progress,  and  there  will  be  plenty  of  good  mutton  on  the  market 
when  Turnips  are  all  finished.  That  time,  however,  is  far  distant,  the 
open  weather  being  so  favourable  to  food  prospects,  and  it  will  most 
probably  be  May  before  markets  are  again  overstocked.  Cattle  are  also 
doing  very  well,  and  with  a  smaller  allowance  of  cake  than  usual. 
There  is  no  economy  in  spending  much  money  in  dear  cake  when  Turnips 
are  in  plenty  and  to  spare,  ami  farmers  must  try  by  economy  to  recover 
some  of  the  too  expensive  cost  of  their  cattle  during  last  winter. 
As  it  is  not  always  the  waggoner  with  the  largest  allowance  of  corn 
whose  horses  look  the  best,  so  those  who  cake  their  bullocks  with  the 
greatest  freedom  do  not  necessarily  produce  the  best  cattle.  Punctuality 
in  feeding,  close  attention  early  and  la^e,  and  in  fact  hard  work,  are 
great  factors  iu  the  building  up  of  good  beef  and  mutton. 
Beef  is  a  little  easier  in  price,  7s.  6i.  per  14  lbs.  being  hardly 
procurable,  and  prospects  for  Christmas  markets  are  not  very  bright. 
Pork  is  still  in  good  demand,  fis.  fid.  per  14  lbs.  being  readily  given  for 
pork,  and  also  for  choice  bacon  pigs. 
