Page:Agricultural labour.djvu/18

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AGRICULTURAL LABOUR.

success. It has been shown to be quite practicable, to elevate the labouring man, not only without burdening the farmer and the landlord, but to the manifest benefit of both, to foster small holdings without depressing agriculture or retarding improvement, and to combine permanence with progress." Mr. Charles Stewart, under whose management this state of things has been brought about, writes to me thus, speaking of the present movement: "Those having cows kept as part of their wages, rarely proposed any addition to their wages, so much is the appreciation of this increased."

But there are many districts where, owing to the absence of grass land or other causes, such an arrangement as letting the labourers keep cows is attended with difficulty. Here it is just as easy to give him an interest in the soil by allotments and co-operative farming. The pages of the Agricultural Commission Report teem with instances of garden allotments and their good results. But here are three instances where something more has been done.

E.—In a West Midland county a clergyman a few years ago found a certain undefined feeling of discontent among the labourers of his parish. After taking counsel he set about a system of allotments of about one-third of an acre, which he is now extending in some cases of active thrifty men to as much as an acre. Thus giving an encouragement and way of rising to the most capable. There was little or no difficulty in this district in meeting the rise of wages, and no ill feeling or trouble. The same might be done elsewhere at the cost of a little trouble, exterminating improvidence and Pauperism.

F.—In a certain Midland county, the clergyman of which was also a landlord and farmed as well, a most enviable state of things has been brought about, and is thus described by an eye-witness: "Most of the farmers pay by piece-work, and every man has land, varying from a rood to an acre: that