The agricultural labourer (Denton)/The agricultural labourer
ON THE
CONDITION OF THE AGRICULTURAL LABOURER
At a time when the education of the wage-paid classes is receiving much public attention, and when we are just on the eve of a great political change, by which all classes will be admitted into the exercise of the electoral franchise except one—the working class in agriculture—I have thought it possible that a few words from one who for many years has directed the operation of a large number of agricultural labourers, and who necessarily feels a great interest in their welfare, might have some influence upon those who are giving their attention to the means by which their condition may be improved.
Having alluded to the new franchise about to be exercised under the "Representation of the People Act, 1867," let me at once disclaim all intention to give a political bearing to the observations I am about to make. I respect too highly the standing rule of this Society (Society of Arts)—of the Council of which I happen to be a member—that political discussions should be avoided in this room, to break it intentionally. But though it is my purpose to treat the subject in a practical manner I should fail in impressing upon others its full importance if, in the first place, I did not call attention to the fact that at the next general election that class of the community known as the agricultural labourer will be the only operating class which will be excluded from voting. I should much like, at a proper time and place, to enlarge on this point, for, in the practical view I take of the matter, I fail to discover any reason why operatives living in boroughs should be admitted to the franchise, while operatives living in the country should be excluded. I will now content myself by saying, that I recognise in the uneducated, dependent, and scattered condition of the latter the real reason why the country has tacitly allowed—as if by common consent—a distinction to be made between the wage-paid labourer of the factory and the wage-paid labourer of the farm.[1] This distinction cannot have arisen because the premises occupied by the one are more valuable than those occupied by the other, for it would be difficult to say which labourer's dwelling—the rural or the urban—costs more money to provide, and it has often been shown in this room that the actual money rent paid by the farm labourer is no criterion of the value of the premises he occupies; nor can it be, because the wages of the one are much greater than those of the other, for when the earnings of each are carefully dissected, it will be seen that there does not exist that great difference between the two which there is generally supposed to be. It can, in fact, only arise from those causes which limit his mental abilities, and prevent his increasing the value of his labour, while they depress his status in the social scale—causes which it is the duty of the country to investigate, and do its utmost to remedy.
But before I go into these causes and the remedies which commend themselves to practical and thoughtful men. I will do my best to remove the misapprehensions that prevail as to the value of the farm labourer's occupation and the amount of wages his services command. There is much in the one that affects the other, and no effort to improve the labourer's condition can be successful unless we fully comprehend the circumstances of both. The average rent of farm labourers' cottages at the present moment may be fairly stated to be rather under than over 1s. 6d. per week, which is less than 4l. a year. This rent is quite as much as the majority of old existing cottages are worth, for most of them have but one bedroom, and are wanting in those accommodations which are essential to decency and comfort.[2] Such dwellings have been, and may still be, built for about 50l. each, if constructed of plaster and thatch, without regard to substantiality, and 4l. a year—being eight per cent.—may be considered a full return, if such dwellings are admissible at all. But if we have reference to those cottages which, under the influence of sanitary reform and sound estate economy, are taking the place of these miserable hovels, we shall find that their average cost with outbuildings, and fencing, and water supply, is 160l. each, or 320l. the pair, exclusive of the site on which they stand. This site, which would cost 15l. more, would make the fee-simple value of the whole 175l. We all know that every speculator employing capital in house building, looks for something like seven per cent, if he is to replace his capital and make five per cent. net after paying insurance and doing repairs.
It, therefore, a farm labourer paid for his occupation the rent in money which a speculator would demand, the payment, instead of 4l. or 5l.—which he still continues to pay for a good cottage as he did for a bad one—would be 12l. 5s., which closely approximates the rateable value fixed as the qualification of a county voter, while it exceeds that of the lodger in boroughs. But it is not in money wholly that the farm labourer pays for the improved cottage, if it forms part of the farm on which he works, or is so connected with it that the farmer has command of the services of the cottager. A farmer having good cottages at his disposal can select the best workmen as his daily labourers. Moreover, as good labourers cling to comfortable homes, he can keep them, which is not the case with the occupiers of the miserable hovels that generally exist; and as newly-built cottages are now usually placed so as to reduce to a minimum the distance the labourer has to walk, whereby time and sinew are saved, the advantages to the employer are, in the aggregate, equal to the difference between the return due to the condemned hovel that due to the improved cottage, and thus, in point of fact, the farm labourer receives in a better home an equivalent to increased wages.
Let us now turn to the more direct earnings of the agricultural labourer, and see what they are. It appears to me that, although much has been said about wages lately, a great deal of misapprehension prevails.
It is not my object at the present moment to provoke any long discussion on the principles which govern the price of labour. That is too wide a subject, and would divert our attention too much from those facts it most desirable to establish to remove misapprehension. But, having had some considerable experience in nearly every county in England, I desire to state shortly and distinctly the conviction at which I have arrived—that, measured by the real value of the services rendered by the agricultural labourers in different parts of England, the prices peculiar to different districts are as high as the return to be gained from those services will sanction. I consider it a fallacy to suppose that the labourers of one district are as good workmen as the labourers of another, and that for the services of each, when applied to the same object, the same money should be paid. Still, it can only be on such grounds that the proposal lately enunciated for the formation of unions, even though "established on principles strictly defensive," among agricultural workmen, can be supported (see Appendix I.). Considering that combinations of workmen are injurious in proportion as ignorance prevails, and that the want of education is the special characteristic of the agricultural labourer, I can anticipate only the worst results from unions among them, and am quite at a loss to comprehend how any national benefit can arise by encouraging such a movement. If the labourer of Dorsetshire or Devonshire was as able a workman as the labourer of Northumberland or Lincolnshire, a common standard of daily wages could be adopted; but the truth is that there is as much difference in the value of ordinary labour in different districts in England as there is in the character of labour in different countries abroad, and it is only consistent with sound economy that this difference should govern the price paid. In making this remark, however, I do not lose sight of the fact, that the price of labour must be regulated in some degree by the cost of maintaining labourers and their families in their own districts, so as to perpetuate and retain the race upon which the produce of the land depends.[3] With respect to wages, it has been my duty for the last seventeen years. when reporting on the agricultural operations of the General Land Drainage and Improvement Company, to inquire into the standing wages of every locality in which works have been executed. In addition to these inquiries, I have recently made others, and have obtained such reliable information, that I believe I am perfectly justified in stating that the present average weekly wages of the farm labourer, excluding extra allowances at hay-time and harvest, and all payments for piece-work and overtime, as well as the value of various perquisites in the shape of beer, milk, fuel, &c, are as follows:
| s. | d. | |
| North-Eastern district | 14 | 6 |
| North-Western district | 14 | 0 |
| Mid-Eastern district | 13 | 0 |
| Mid-Western district | 11 | 0 |
| Midland district (exclusive of Middlesex) | 10 | 9 |
| South-Eastern district | 12 | 0 |
| Mid-Southern and South-Western districts | 10 | 6 |
These figures include shepherds and horse-keepers, but do not include the wages of bailiffs, where they exist, nor of other special employés, nor the earnings of labourers' wives and children. They include, however, beer and cider when they form a regular daily allowance in lieu of money—as is very frequently the case in the West of England—but not otherwise.
The mean weekly day-labour wages of able-bodied men throughout the whole of England may be taken at 12s. 6d.
To this must be added the additional gains by occasional piece-work,[4] extra payments at hay-time and harvest, when double ordinary wages is frequently given, independently of the increased allowance of beer or cider. In the aggregate, the actual income derived from these employments is equal to from 1s. 6d. to 3s. a week, according to the custom of different districts. When piece-work can wholly take the place of day-labour, a labourer may earn 25 per cent. more than by the day. The total value of the beer and cider supplied to each labourer as his allowance, at hay-time and harvest, when employed in drilling and machine threshing, and when engaged in piece-work, if spread over the whole year, would amount to from 1s. to 2s. a week more, according to locality. With these additions to his direct money wages, the farm labourer gains from 15s. to 16s. per week, taking the mean of England.
But, besides this aggregate, he gets other advantages which are unknown to the industrial labourer living in a town. The rents of the dwellings of town operatives vary from 4s. to 6s. a week, some having very good dwellings for these rents, while others are obliged to pay as much for lodgings only. Comparing these figures with the 1s. 6d., which I have stated is more than the average rent paid by the agricultural labourer for cottages equally as good or better than the dwellings of the town operative, the difference must be regarded as a gain to the former. The town operative seldom, if ever, has the advantage of a garden wherein he may grow potatoes and vegetables. His outlay for these essential articles of food is often great, particularly if he has many children to provide for. In fact, the ordinary payment for potatoes and vegetables by a mechanic with a wife and three children, living in a town, is stated on good authority to be 2s. 6d. a week. An agricultural labourer, if he is fortunate enough to have—what he ought invariably to have—a rood of garden ground as part of his occupation, which he may cultivate after he has done his wage-paid work,—will grow upon it vegetables sufficient to yield him a return, after payment of rent and for seed, of at least 4l. a year, which is rather more than 1s. 6d. a week. I am assuming in this estimate that he has time and strength sufficient to do all the labour that is required to cultivate it. and that he is careful in storing the refuse of his dwelling, i.e., the ashes, sewage, and waste, so that he may avoid any payment for either labour or manure. If I am right, the labourer makes from his garden ground a profit equivalent to the rent of his cottage.
Thus it will be seen that that from his house and garden the agricultural labourer gains advantages equal to at least 4s. per week, which, if added to his money returns, will raise his wages from 15s. or 16s. to 19s. or 20s.[5] a week, independent of what his wife and children may make, and this frequently adds 25 per cent to his income.[6] I have said nothing about the gains of gleaning, which have been estimated at 1l. 1s. 10d. to 40s.; about the difference in the cost of bread, meat, milk, &c., which is favour of the country compared with towns; nor of the benefit an agricultural labourer is said to derive from the keeping of a pig, as I am doubtful myself whether anything is fairly gained by it; neither have I estimated the great advantage of pure country air in securing the health and strength of the labourer and his family, though all these have a money value which should be considered I may here state that for several years past I have adopted the weekly wage of 20s. as the basis of payment to the able-bodied labourers employed by the General Land Drainage Company when away from their homes during the draining season, at which time the number has frequently exceeded 1500. The system adopted when going into fresh districts is to make the earnings of a few good practised hands, of medium capability, who follow the company's foremen wherever they go, the data for paying all other hands. The weekly work of a good gang of drainers will, if divided, give to each hand as much as from 30 to 40 rods of digging, and the price per rod will be fixed by the foreman at such an amount as to apportion to the standard men from 16s. to 22s. a week, according to the length of the day, after paying for the repair of tools. While these figures are the wages of standard workmen of average capability, the local labourers, at the commencement of the work, will seldom earn more than from 10s. to 12s. The best hands will probably be gaining at the same time from 20s. to 24s. Of course this is to be expected, and the statement is only apposite to the present inquiry, when I add the fact that, whenever a turn-out or a strike takes place, it is invariably found to have its origin in the local men, and there are many kindly disposed persons who take their part, though the result invariably shows that by perseverance they can, after a time, make as good wages as the older standard and best hands. With this knowledge it will be understood with what dismay I look upon the proposal of unions (see Appendix I.) which can only maintain inferior work at an extravagant coat, and encourage discontent at the same time.[7]
The weekly earnings of different labourers, which fairly represent the class known as "industrial" operatives,[8] may be stated to be as follows:
Carpenters and joiners from 18s. 0d. to 28s. 0d. Sawyers from„21s. 0d. to 26s.0d. Bricklayers average 31s. 6d. Bricklayers„ labourers average„19s. 6d. Brickmakers from 24s. 0d. to 30s. 0d. Masons average 30s. 0d. Masons„ labourers average„17s. 6d. Gardeners (exclusive of head gardeners) average„16s. 0d. Smiths from 26s. 0d to 28s. 0d. Brassfounders from„24s. 0d. to 33s. 0d. Painters average 28s. 0d. Bootmakers from 21s. 0d. to 26s. 0d. Tallow workers (labourers) average 18s. 0d. Engineers and Boilermakers from 25s. 0d. to 30s. 0d. Coal-miners from 17s. 0d. to 27s. 0d. Quarry men (slate) from„18s. 0d. to 23s. 0d. Carters from„17s. 0d. to 19s. 0d. Railway labourers (maintenance) from„15s. 0d. to 20s. 0d. Butchers' men from„16s. 0d. to 18s. 0d. Police constables average 20s. 0d. Bakers' men from 21s. 0d. to 26s. 6d. Cotton workers average 18s. 6d. Silk workers from 17s. 0d. to 24s. 0d.
The difference between these figures (which, it will be seen, do not cover the highest grade of trade operatives), and the wages of the agricultural labourer, is too great to exist between the two main branches of the wage-paid classes without making efforts to reduce it. It accounts for the fact that the population of our leading agricultural counties is decreasing, while that of other counties in which manufacturing towns exist is increasing with more than ordinary rapidity.[9] It accounts, too, for the deplorable truth, that while the industrial labourers of our towns are known to save money to provide for incapacity and old age, the utmost the agricultural labourer manages to do is by means of provident societies, if he is lucky enough to belong to one which is well managed, to provide for illness during his working age. In the breast of the former there exists a hope of accumulating money, and ultimately becoming a master, while the final prospect of the latter is, I regret to say it, nothing but pauperism and the union. Sad as this picture is, it is a satisfaction to know that the rate of agricultural wages throughout the country has increased within these last thirty-five years quite so much as 20 per cent., while the prices of those provisions and supplies which constitute the ordinary food and necessaries of life have, on the whole, decreased in the aggregate about 10 per cent. The price of meat and cheese has increased within the last few years at an extraordinary rate. This is partly to be accounted for by the prevalence of diseases amongst cattle, and partly by the fact that the labouring classes themselves consume a great deal of meat, which was not the case in the last generation; but it is a curious fact that just fifty years ago the price of the best meat was the same as at this moment, though if we only go back half that time—twenty-five years—it was about 40 per cent. cheaper. Inferior meat has not been liable to such changes, though there has been a variation of 2d. per pound within the period mentioned. Bread, though high in price at this moment, remains at much the same cost as it was before the repeal of the corn laws. Beer, though nominally cheaper, is so much worse in quality that we cannot regard it as actually reduced in cost. Tea, coffee, sugar, and groceries generally are 50 per cent. less than they were fifty years ago. Clothes and shoes are very much cheaper also, probably from 40 per cent. to 50 per cent. The cost of fuel, on the whole, is less than it was thirty-five years ago.
Though I hope I have shown that the position of the agricultural labourer is not so bad as many represent it to be, no one can say that it is quite satisfactory; but with the profits of farming as low and uncertain as they are, the only way to justify an increase of labourers' wages will be by rendering the value of labour greater than it now is. With the present ruling prices of farming produce, I repeat, it can only be by such means that the farmer can pay more for manual labour. Active hands, directed by superior intelligence, already obtain money wages above the mean of 16s.; and as there is greater scope in agriculture for the exercise of judgment than perhaps in any other trade or pursuit, in which physical labour forms so great an element, owing to the diversity of its objects and the casualties which affect them, there is no reason to doubt but that with an increase of knowledge, on those cardinal points which alone can enhance the value of labour, the earnings of the whole class may be increased. And how is this "knowledge" to be obtained? How is the intelligence which guides the mechanical to be imparted to the agricultural labourer?
This directly brings us to the subject of education and its influence on the agricultural labourer by bringing his mind to bear on his physical duties.
The state of education among agricultural labourers was truly indicated by the Royal Commissioners appointed in 1861, to inquire into the state of public education in England, when they said that in the British Army, which, I believe, is chiefly made up out of the agricultural class, "out of 10,000 soldiers examined in 1856, more than one-fourth could not write, and more than one-fifth could not read, while in the British Foreign Legion, raised in 1855, four-fifths of the Italians and 97 per cent. of the Germans, could both read and write." Those, however, who are brought often into contact with the English farm labourer, as I happen to be, require no statistics to prove the almost total absence of education that exists among them. We can only wonder that with a nation so advanced in civilisation as our own, such a condition of mind should be allowed to lower one particular class without a general effort on the part of all other classes to improve it. But the want of education is not to be wholly attributed to national apathy and indifference. It is due to various causes special to rural life, but perhaps the most powerful of all is, the belief that existed largely at one time, and still lingers with some few farmers, that education disqualifies a labourer for manual work in the field. This belief had its origin in the little education possessed by the majority of farmers themselves in times past, though at the present time there is no class more quickly awakening from indifference to the benefits of knowledge than the farmers. Moreover, they are not as a class to be blamed wholly for past indifference, for there were many landowners who in their turn preferred men as tenants on their estates who were not possessed of those attainments which qualified them to appreciate education in their labourers. Not many years back it was a common thing to exhibit less care for the comfort of the labourer than for the comfort of cattle; better buildings, indeed, were provided for the cows than for the labourers. But this state of things is happily gone by.
I will not here dilate on the manner in which the children of the labourer should be taught at school, nor enter upon the arguments for and against compulsory education. I am content to express my conviction that primary education at school—consisting of reading, writing, and arithmetic—is essential as the basis of improved practical knowledge, even though it be called forth in the duties of the only class now omitted from the franchise; and that, as public attention has at last been aroused to the object, the good sense of the country will rightly determine how that primary education shall be attained. To confine our efforts, however, to elementary school learning would, I contend, fail in object we all desire—which is, to see the farm labourer earning more money by labour of greater value to his employer. To do this, technical—that is, practical—education must be associated with primary school teaching; that his mind may be actuated with special reference to his duties. Technical education, I believe, has been more than once explained in this room to mean practical tuition in those operations which men are called on to perform in the business of life. It is, however, a term that has been exclusively used in connexion with the arts and sciences, and those businesses in which mechanical and chemical science have been mixed up. In agriculture I believe the term has never been used; but perhaps in no calling is "technical" education—if by that term we properly express practical education—more required.
I will endeavour to make this understood. There is not a farmer in the country who, be he engaged in sheep farming or in dairying, in tillage, or in mixed farming, does not know the superior value of a labourer well acquainted with special duties. Take, for instance, a shepherd. The wage of a good shepherd is 16s. a week, besides perquisites; and I venture to say that, at this moment, there is hardly any other description of agricultural service in which there are fewer capable men. A good shepherd is one of the most difficult men to obtain, and the loss to individual farmers, and to the country generally, from the want of them is very great.
Again, good horse-keepers are almost as difficult to obtain as good shepherds. From my own experience I can say that the difference between a good horse-keeper and a bad one is not to be measured by the simple difference between scanty and liberal wages. Any one accustomed to horses knows immediately, by the appearance or the touch of their skin, whether the man in charge of them known his business; and he will confirm my opinion, that any difference in wages will be more than counterbalanced by the saving in the corn which horses will consume when well attended to, and the better service then obtained from them compared with that gained when they have been indifferently treated.
The same remark will apply to the tending of neat stock. Speaking again from my own experience, I have found that cattle, under the charge of a man who thoroughly understands them, will fatten quicker, and in every respect do much better with less food, than under a man who, from attempting indiscriminately all the duties of the farm, is master of none. In the minor matter of poultry, I have known many pounds lost by the want of proper treatment of them, and have found a labourer's wife with a small plot of ground, who has brought intelligence to bear, has raised more poultry than has been produced from a farm of several hundred acres. If this be admitted to be the case with live stock, it will be unnecessary for me to point out the advantages of employing men in the use of implements who have taken pains to understand them. The loss sustained by farmers from the careless treatment of costly implements is great. Few labourers know how to adjust them if they get out of order; and one who thoroughly understands the steam-engine, so as to take charge of it when ploughing land or thrashing corn, is indeed a prodigy in his parish. And why should we dread the purchase and use of steam-engines on our farms, on the ground that we have not a labourer who could take care of them, when tuition in youth would supply the omission? It is true that my friend, Mr. Howard, of Bedford, now and then undertakes to tutor a farm labourer in the management of the engine, if he is previously assured of his intelligence. This circumstance, while it shows how an individual difficulty may be overcome, must go some way to prove that that technical education is to be attained in the lowest grade of agriculturists, as in the more refined artisan class. It would be tedious to pass through all the branches of a farmer's business, to show how technical knowledge in the labourer would apply. There is hardly an operation in tillage that would not be done better, if the operator had early understood it. Take the simple operations of ploughing, drilling, and sowing; is not a good workman worth 1s. or 2s. more per week than a bad one? The same observation applies to hedging, ditching, draining, and thatching, in which there is no comparison between an expert man and an unpractised one. I have myself sent miles for a good thatcher, and for a hedger who has understood his work.
How, then, are these practices to be taught in youth? I will do my best to explain.
The only reasonable ground for keeping the children of an agricultural labourer from school, is the circumstance that, having hungry stomachs to fill, and active bodies to clothe, they must earn something to pay for the food they eat and the clothes they wear; and so weighty is this excuse with some men of high position and character, that they are led to doubt the policy of compelling attendance, even for the limited number of hours yearly which it is proposed the children should be at school. Still, so essential is primary knowledge, that we may with certainty assume that this objection, weighty though it be, will give way to general opinion. And what I would suggest would be, that those children who attend school for the limited time determined upon, when earning their food and clothes by labour, should be placed in a situation to obtain fundamental technical—or, if it be better, to call it "practical"—knowledge on the farm; not by indiscriminately one day to do one thing and the next another, merely to meet the convenience of the moment, but by putting them for a sufficient time under the shepherd, or the horse-keeper, or the stock-keeper, or the engineer, or the hedger and ditcher, or the thatcher, that they may learn, as far as such labourers can teach them, the duties of their future calling. The only difference between the present system and that which I would suggest would be, that a youth employed on a farm should be so systematically engaged that he should early learn, by a species of apprenticeship, all that can be practically taught upon it, and that the shepherd, the dairyman, or the engine-man, as the case may be, with whom he should be placed, should receive a bonus for teaching him all he knows. In order to be assured that these teachers deserve their bonuses, the youths should, at certain periods, undergo examination, and, where it be practicable, be made to compete with other youths for prizes. All that would be required in the way of national, district, or outside aid, would be the provision of qualified examiners, and the means of paying the teachers their fees, and the youths their prizes. Already we have throughout the country, in the autumn, matches in ploughing, ditching, and draining, and the interest that the labouring men take in the competitions, may be taken as some proof that, under proper control, competitive trials may be extended to farming youths engaged in various agricultural duties. The payments to the labourers for teaching, and the youths for learning, would each act favourably favourably in maintaining superior services on the turn, and thus the farmer himself would naturally become interested, and would give his support to the system. Youths would gain at one and the same time primary education at school and practical information on the farm, and the two descriptions of knowledge would tell with increasing advantage upon each other, and would finally effect what is really wanted—an improvement in the quality of the labourer's work, so that he may command increased wages for that work from his employer.[10]
At present the beer-shop is a great bar to the improved condition of the agricultural labourer. The influence of drink on an uneducated mind cannot be better shown than by the fact that beer or cider will go much farther than its equivalent in money in inducing men to exert themselves, although the money could be taken home by the labourer for the benefit of the wife and children as well as himself, while the beer or cider if drunk is dissipated in selfish indulgence. The quality of the beer and cider sold in the lowest-waged districts is the worst. If it be right to facilitate the selling of beer and cider, let it be wholesome and pure. At present beer is generally adulterated, or "doctored," as they term it, to suit the taste of the labouring man, and its effects are not to be measured by its immediate action on the system. It tells equally upon the physical energies of the man as upon the moral powers of his mind. It prostrates both. The quantity of beer drunk in the hay and harvest time would surprise many of my hearers, though in the ordinary disbursements of a labourer—as ascertained by Mr. Purdy, of the Poor Law Commission—only one instance appears on record in which an expenditure in beer has been entered in the housekeeping expenses. I presume that case was the only one in which the wife had partaken of it as a necessary item of food. It is nevertheless true, that during harvest every able-bodied male labourer drinks beer which costs from 8d to 1s. a day, taking the average of harvests in the eastern corn-growing counties. I should be sorry to condemn beer as an article of food when properly made with good malt and hops, but that article, as I have just said, is seldom to be met with. The liquid sold as beer in rural districts satisfies thirst at the time, and provokes it as soon as drunk. I cannot speak too strongly against the prevailing excessive use of bad beer and cider. It is the bane of the farm labourer. In those counties in the west of England where cider is used instead of beer, the impoverished condition of the agricultural labourer is even worse than where beer prevails. His inferiority in work is mainly to be attributed to the bad character of the cider, and the excessive use made of it. There is some proof of the injurious influence of excessive drinking in the fact that in all the worst paid districts—where labour commands the lowest wages, and where those wages are all that the labour is worth—the publican and beer-seller bear a far larger proportion to the number of agricultural labourers than is the case in those districts where the wages are higher and where the labour is more valuable. We often hear mentioned the low rate of wages in the county of Dorset, and comparisons are made with the wages ruling in other counties. When we turn to the statistics giving the occupation of the people in the population returns of the last census, we find that whereas in Lincolnshire, which I select as the best-cultivated county in England, the number of agricultural labourers is 52,871, and the number of people living by the sale of beer is 1317, in Dorsetshire the number of agricultural labourers is 19,434, and the number of persons selling beer and cider is 582, showing a proportion in the former case of one beer-seller to 40 agricultural labourers, and in the latter, one beer-seller to 33 labourers.
The proportion in Lincolnshire is much too high; but what is to be said of Dorsetshire, where the labourers, earning only two-thirds of the wages of Lincolnshire, support a larger proportion of beer and cider sellers? The figures given, moreover, do not fully represent the real state of things as regards the extent to which the beer and cider is drunk in Dorsetshire, as in that county a great deal of cider is given in lieu of money wages, whereas in Lincolnshire no such regular practice prevails either with respect to beer or cider.
But I can illustrate this important part of the question by stating a case, within my experience, which can hardly fail to exhibit the fact that low wages and inferior work are associated with a preponderating use of beer or cider. In the year 1852 I had the control of some extensive drainage works in Dorsetshire, and at that time the agricultural money wages of the district ranged from 7s. to 9s. a week. Impressed that such pay was inconsistent with suitable labour, I imported into the work some north-country labourers from Northumberland, practised in draining, to afford an example for such local men as chose to enter the trenches and dig by the piece. I guaranteed to the northern men a minimum of 18s. a week, Although I could command the services of as many Dorsetshire labourers as I desired to employ at half that price. The result showed that I was right in bringing high-priced competent men amongst low-priced inferior ones, for as soon as the Dorsetshire men knew what the north-country men were getting, and saw the character of the work executed by them, they applied all their energies in imitation. At first they drank more beer, thinking that by such means they could do more work. They soon saw their error, and it was both amusing, and instructive at the same time, to see how struck they were when they found that the northern men had for their dinners good meat and bread, while they were living on bread, tobacco, and miserable beer or cider. It was by very slow degrees that the Dorsetshire men realised the truth that butchers' meat was more strengthening than bad beer. Eventually, by the example afforded them, the "technical education" given them by the Northumberland men, and by the effect of improved food, the despised Dorsetshire men were enabled to earn as much as their teachers, and it was not long before I actually removed them into the north of England, to compete with Yorkshire men in the work they had learned; and the first place at which they were engaged was Swine, in Holderness, where there did not exist a public-house or a beer-shop in the village.
I have given these details, hoping they will serve two objects—by proving, first, the evil of beer and the good of beef; and next, the benefit of technical or practical teaching as a means by which the quality of labour may be improved, and the earnings of low-waged districts increased.
It this experience of mine fails to convey what I mean, I can perhaps show that inferior work, low wages, and excess of drink, are attended by a greater amount of pauperism than belongs to districts where better labour, higher wages, and less beer prevail, by quoting from Mr. Purdy the result of figures he has given in his paper published in the Journal of the Statistical Society (vol xxiv., p. 346), which prove that whereas, in an example district in Dorset and Wilts, where the weekly wages were 9s. 6d., the rate of relief to the poor was 8s. 2d. per head on the population, in a similar district in Cumberland and Northumberland, where the weekly wages were 14s. 6d., the rate of relief was only 5s. 5d.
Thus far I have spoken of those means of improving the condition of the agricultural labourer which will depend on himself and the force of education gained at school and on the farm. There are other means, however, by which the higher and middle classes in rural parishes may render material aid while the seeds of education are taking root. I have said may render aid, because all Englishmen resist compulsion; but I feel those words are hardly strong enough when applied to the objects to which I am about to refer. Public opinion will, in fact, force their adoption in all places where its influence can be felt.
I refer to four principal objects; First, to a more general substitution of good cottages for bad ones—cottages which will secure health and comfort in the ordinary living department, and provide separate bedrooms for the parents and children of different sexes, so as to secure comfort and decency, which have hitherto been incompatible with the dwellings of the farm labourer. These advantages may be gained not only by building new cottages, but by alterations of and additions to existing ones. This was a great point with the late Lord Palmerston, who personally took as much interest in the comfort of the working men on his estates as he did in the conveniences of his own mansion. I had many opportunities of learning and of witnessing his practical philanthropy, and shall not forget the truth-telling homeliness with which he said that "it is not necessary to pull down old cottages to build new ones. A great deal can be done, at a moderate cost, in improving the old ones." His lordship added, after saying this, "That the effect of improving these dwellings is almost marvellous. In the first place, the comfort of a man's house depends on tidiness of a man's wife, and on the mode in which she tries to make him comfortable. But there is a temper of the human mind which is denominated recklessness. When a thing seems impossible, it is given up in despair. When a cottage is in such a 'ramshackle' state that it is impossible for the wife to keep it clean, she becomes a slattern; everything goes to ruin; the man in disgusted, and flies to the beershop."
Second, the provision of a proper means of dealing with the drainage of villages and cottages, and the utilisation of the refuse which may be discharged from them. This is a matter upon which little has yet been done. We have drained large towns, and discharged their sewage into the rivers—a practice which the country has determined shall not be continued. At present we have not entered upon a mode of dealing with the sewage of villages and small communities; and whether it will be by the introduction of the dry-earth system (Mr. Moule's), or by any other process of utilisation, yet remains to be determined. The dry-earth system commends itself to the minds of many as the most suitable for villages, because each resident may preserve the refuse of his cottage for the benefit of his own garden without injuriously affecting his neighbour; and this being a very desirable object, the problem has to be solved how, by combined action, all the residents of a village may be brought into one common system of proceeding. As the wage-paid labourer cannot of himself do this, it would appear positively necessary that the owners of village property should take the initiative.
Third, the supply of pure wholesome water in quantity sufficient to secure cleanliness and comfort to villages and cottages. I have already addressed the Society upon this important object,[11] and will abstain from repetition. The supply of water to large towns, like their drainage, is an easy matter compared to the provision of villages and small communities. But with our whole water supply undergoing change from causes we cannot control, and our village cottagers called upon to pay as much as a penny per pail for water, the subject must soon receive attention.
And, fourth, the provision of ground for the recreation of those children which it is determined by common consent should be educated.
I will now address myself to those objects in which the upper and middle classes of rural parishes may voluntarily assist the lower class. Foremost amongst them are benefit societies. Of all things which the labouring man most dreads is his condition in his last days. By subscription to local societies (if well managed) a labourer may, under the present state of things, contrive to obtain the means of support if sickness overtakes him while able to work, but a provision for old age and total incapacity is an object which vary few agricultural labourers secure. If the earnest interest of the upper classes in a parish could be manifested by taking a part in the management of benefit societies, very great good would attend them, and it would no longer be said that out of the 23,000 friendly societies which exist in England and Wales, there are not 20 solvent. By importing into the mode of management the agency of the post-office as a means of securing safety of deposit and of insuring allowances both in sickness and in old age, as has been proposed by the Rev. J. Y. Stratton, in some interesting articles written by him in All the Year Round (April, 1866), and in The Cornhill Magazine (February, 1864), the extension of such societies would follow. It was with a view to gain this advantage that the Kent Friendly Society memorialised the Postmaster-General last year, and I believe with good effect. All persons who have given their attention to the matter concur in objecting to the meetings of friendly societies at public-houses (see Appendix II and if the classes would really take an interest in them, the practice would be modified, if not discontinued. "Sometimes," says Mr. Tidd Pratt, "the club is sold with the goodwill of the house." Beer-house clubs are indeed a great abomination.
Some few existing societies are excellent precedents for the establishment of others. The Essex Provident Society has enrolled between 9000 and 10,000 members, and has a capital of between 70,000l. and 80,000l.; and the Hampshire Friendly Society has upwards of 3000 members and a capital of 35,000l. The Hitchin Friendly Institution, established in 1828, is, perhaps, based on as good a foundation as any in the country, as every member who insures against sickness is also compelled to insure for a pension in old age, an object declared by Mr. Hawkins its founder and great supporter, to be of "vital importance if the wage-paid classes are to be taught the advantage of respectability in providing for themselves when past work without application to the parish."
The next object in which the higher classes can help the lower is in establishing and maintaining garden allotments under a provident system of management, by which a labourer, having allotted to him a rood of land, may pay, during his active life, a rent more than sufficient to satisfy the landowner, but which it is quite worth his while to pay, to secure the profit which the gardening of a rood of land will give. In the majority of cases a landowner who would not let a single rood of land to the labourer, would let a plot of many acres to the parish authorities, and would be quite satisfied in receiving for it a fair agricultural rent, say 2l. an acre, tithe free, which is equal to 3d. a pole or 10s. a rood. If the labourer paid 6d. a pole, or 1l. a rood, tithe and rate free, he would be paying double the acreage rent that would satisfy the landowner, and if the surplus was invested through the same agency as that of the "Post-office Benefit Societies," it would accumulate so as to provide the rent of the land after a certain number of years, whereby the labourer in his latter days would hold the land rent free. Thus he would ensure one means of support. But such an advantage can only be gained by the combination of the more wealthy parishioners, who together might become security to the landowner for the principal rent.
Again, village hospitals and infirmaries, enabling the labouring class who have lived a worthy life to gain proper medical advice and nursing at home, are working well where properly managed, and are fit objects for benevolent co-operation. A very good illustration of what may be done in this way through the active interest of the kind-hearted and wealthy, it to be seen in the case of Cranleigh village hospital, to which the wife of a landowner lately high sheriff of Surrey acts both as secretary and treasurer.
But besides these there is still another object, in which the upper classes may do much good. We have recently heard much co-operative societies for reducing the cost of provisions and preventing extortion on the part of London tradesmen. Without entering upon the question of whether such societies are desirable or beneficial for those they were originally intended to assist, it is quite certain that a modification of them may, with great advantage, be carried out in villages for the supply of food and clothing to the labouring population in rural districts. At present there has been very little experience in co-operative stores in villages.[12] There is no doubt, however, that the small wages of the agricultural labourer are much reduced by tribute to the local tradesmen; and with so little to spend as the labourer has, it is indeed desirable that that little should purchase as much as it can be made to do. One condition would be paramount, and that would be, that ready money should be the only means of purchase, but as this requirement would produce provident and careful habits, while the trust system leads to loss and suffering, it could not eventually militate against success.
Associated with co-operative stores there might be established common kitchens and bakeries,[13] in which food might cooked with economy, and a better knowledge of cooking among labourers' wives acquired (See Appendix IV.) Several efforts of this character are now being made in various parts of the country, but I am not in possession of sufficient information to speak of the results. If, in addition to district visiting our young ladies would introduce the sewing machine into villages and take the initiative in the needle work of the poorer neighbours, the labourers' wives would gain knowledge in that department, and help at the same time.
Lately, too, penny readings have become fashionable during the winter in many villages, and the squire, the clergyman, the doctor, and the trader have vied with each other in laudable efforts to provide amusement for their neighbours; and, as instruction invariably accompanies mental amusement, much benefit is gained. Dickens, Thackeray, Marriott, Halliburton, and Douglas Jerrold, with occasionally a taste of Shakespeare, Tennyson, or Longfellow, are the favourite authors whose works are read. The subjects and scenes selected, however, are almost invariably beyond the appreciation of the agricultural labourer, who, though fond of native wit and homely habits, and perhaps able to enjoy the sayings and doings of Sam Weller and Jacob Faithful, are quite incapable of enjoying the satire of Vanity Fair, or Sam Slick, the pungent quizzing of Mr. and Mrs. Caudle, or the refinements of high-class poetry. They are, therefore, excluded from these cheap evening gatherings. Why should this be? Is it not possible to have village readings on "Nature's common things," in which all classes can be amused and instructed? I venture to say that, if once an effort was made to render popular the philosophy of natural laws in every day country objects we should find the labourer desert the beer-shop for the reading-room. "Talpa" (Mr. Chandos Wren Hoskyns) has shown us how amusing "The Chronicles of a Clay Farm" may be made; and the profound Faraday, when he lectured on a farthing candle, proved that the science involved in one of the commonest objects of daily use could be made as excitingly interesting as the highest wrought sensational novel. I am satisfied that, if the educated gentry of the country would now and then extend their interest in the direction indicated, by communicating information on any common object which they may thoroughly understand—it should, however, be a condition that the information should be fundamentally sound—they would not only instruct the uneducated of the village, but they would impart knowledge to their own class, which would be eagerly seized and reciprocated. Science would thus gain ground in rural districts in the most pleasing way, and we should not meet with the ignorance one daily encounters, when the horse-keeper emphatically assures you that his horses prefer to drink water from a pond receiving the drainage of the stable, or when the cows man asserts that his stock are all the better for living in a low-lofted, crowded shippon, in which there is hardly room to stand up or space for all his cows to lie down at the same time; or when the ploughman tells you that clay soils are so stiff that water cannot pass through them, while he himself is engaged in poaching the surface by ploughing it in wet weather, without seeing that it is his own act that upholds the water.
I trust I may be allowed to close my remarks with an acknowledgment of the assistance I have received from numerous correspondents; among them I may mention Mr. Lawson, of Northumberland; Mr. Briggs, of Yorkshire; Mr. Skelton, of Lincolnshire; Mr. George Jackson, of Cheshire; Mr. Charles Howard, of Beds; Mr. Squarrey. of Wilts; Mr. Morris and Mr. Castree, of Gloucestershire; the Rev. Prebendary Brereton; Mr. Sturge, of Bristol; Mr. Fowler, of Bucks; Mr. Mechi; the Rev. J. Y. Stratton; Mr. Charles Whitehead, of Kent; Mr. Whitting, of Cambridgeshire; Mr. Hagger, of Liverpool; and Mr. James Webb, of Worcestershire.
- ↑ In a letter to the writer, the kind and able advocate of the labourer, the Rev. Prebendary Brereton, of Little Massingham, Norfolk (late of Devonshire), says: "I am glad that you propose to republish your paper. It will be very useful in dispelling the unreasonable and mischievous notions that prevail as to be state of the English agricultural labourer. I could have wished that you had noticed with more emphasis the wrong that is done him by omitting him from the enfranchisement bestowed on his brother operatives. Next to the truths of religion, rights of citizenship are, I believe, the most powerful educators of mankind, and as a stimulus to energy of thought they are even needed in a rural than in an urban population." Mr. Clare Sewell Read, M.P., takes a different view, and said at the Society of Arts when this paper was read: "Mr. Denton seemed to think it rather strange that agricultural labourers were not admitted to the franchise; but they must remember that while the borough qualification had been reduced only from 10l. to about 4l., that for counties had been reduced from 50l. to 12l.; and if the present bill was spoken of as a leap in the dark, he considered that one which would give the franchise to the agricultural labourer would be taking a jump into the bottomless pit." For my own part I shall be pleased when the labourer of the farm is placed in every respect on the same footing of citizenship as the labourer of the factory.
- ↑ Sir George Jenkinson, in the observations he made upon the reading of this paper, said that "he knew of instances of hovels not fit for human beings to live in, which were owned in freehold by the occupants;" and added, truly, that in the strictures that were made on the acts and omissions of landowners, this feature in the case was not sufficiently recognised.
- ↑ Where labourers are superabundant, it is most desirable that the surplus should move into another district where labour is scarce; but to encourage unions with a view to raise wages in low-paid districts, without improving the quality of the work done, is cruel both to the employed and the employer, for the one will be deprived of the only sound ground of independence while the other will be obliged to pay money for an inadequate return.
- ↑ The advantages gained by the adoption of piece-work in the place of day-labour are stated by one of our leading farmers, Mr. Charles Howard, of Biddenham, to be: 1. The work is done more expeditiously, at the proper time with less supervision on the part of the employer; 2. It is less expensive than day-work, and payment is made for only the work done; 3. The labourer, finding his wage is regulated by the quantity and quality of the work performed is more industrious, and exercises more skill is what he does; and 4. By placing higher wages within reach, the temptation to leave farm-work for occupations is lessened.
- ↑ If apportioned to the districts into which I have already divided the country, these figures will stand as follows:
North-Eastern district 22 North-Western district 22 Mid-Eastern district 20 Mid-Western district 18 Midland district 19 South-Eastern district 21 Mid-Southern district and South-Western district 16 - ↑ Mr. Purdy, in his valuable paper in the Journal of Statistical Society of London, on the rate of agricultural wages, illustrates the assistance a labourer derives from the work of his wife and children by adopting Dr Kay's figures, given in the same journal, which show the income gained by upwards of 500 families of different sizes in Norfolk and Suffolk to be as follows:
Families Condition Average No of
children.Average
annual income.36 Single men … £25·0 64 No children at home … 30·6 166 All children under 10 3 32·6 120 One child above 10 4 35·6 92 Two children above 10 5 40·5 44 Three children above 10 6 45·6 15 Four children above 10 7 50·9 - ↑ Mr. S. Sidney stated in the discussion which followed the reading of this paper, that he "quite agreed with the observations which had been made as to the fruitlessness of encouraging the labourers to combine, and thought that the gentlemen who took part in the meeting at Willis's Room were not so wise as well-meaning, but at the same time Canon Girdlestone had proposed one of the few things which would really do the labourer good; when he found that in one parish or district the wages were very low indeed, he recommended the men to go elsewhere, and that was just what caused the great superiority of mechanics to farm labourers; they were much better educated, not so much in the way of reading and writing, but in knowledge of the world, and how best to provide for themselves, and improve their condition. The agricultural labourer must not be limited to the mere bounds of his parish, as was now too often the case. In dealing with millions of people, the only way to help them was to teach them to help themselves, and the essential point was to give them that sort of education which would make them desire more."
- ↑ Mr. David Chadwick stated, in his paper, "On the Wages of Manchester, Salford, and Lancashire," that "the wages of nearly all classes of factory operatives appear to have increased from 10 to 25 per cent. during the last twenty years.
- ↑ The population of Lancashire has increased from 2,031,236, in 1851, to 2,429,440, in 1861, and Staffordshire from 608,716, in 1851, to 746,943 in 1861; whereas the population of Cambridgeshire has decreased from 185,405 in 1851, to 176,016, in 1861, and Norfolk from 442,714, in 1851, to 434,798 in 1861.
- ↑ Mr. Prebendary Brereton says: "Your remarks on technical or practical education are interesting and important." "I am convinced that much may be done and ought to be done in this direction, but public opinion, especially in the influential classes, has been all against it." Mr. Lawson, of Morpeth, writes to me:—"The proposal of training labourers (youths) to particular kinds of labour is thoroughly sound."
- ↑ Society of Arts Journal, vol. xiv. p. 17.
- ↑ It must not be supposed from this that I am the advocate of co-operative farming, or of the "system of industrial partnership" applied to farming. The reader is referred to Appendix III. for a description of one of the most successful efforts of the sort applied to trade.
- ↑ Mr. J. K. Fowler remarks: "Mr. Denton had spoken of bakeries for the benefit of the men, but he did not see why they should not have public breweries as well, so as to avoid the bad beer so much complained of, only it would be quite necessary that the present oppressive malt-tax should be removed. The supply of water to the dwellings of the poor was of even greater consequence than that of beer, and should never be overlooked in the erection of cottages."