40. OF THE WAGES OF FARM-SERVANTS.

"The husbandman that laboureth must be first partaker of the fruits."

ST PAUL.

(1974.) Winter is the time in which wages in kind are paid to farmservants; and the part of that season chosen for the purpose is about the end of the year. It is requisite that harvest shall be completely over in the latest season, and every preparatory operation connected with the accommodation of stock, either on turnips or in the steading, be gone through, before the business of thrashing the crop in a regular order be commenced. In connection with thrashing the crop, a plan should be adopted for supplying straw for fodder and litter, as recommended in (1692.), as well as for placing a quantity of new oats in the granary, to be drying, and to be ready for use by the time the perhaps small stock of old corn shall be consumed. After all these preparatory operations incidental to winter have been accomplished, and before much of the new crop has been disposed of at market, further than to ascertain its general quality and price, the first leisure afforded by them is taken for paying the farm-servants their yearly wages of corn; and as the quantity distributed is considerable on a large farm, and as all the servants should receive their wages at the same time, to avoid jealousy, there will be a considerable quantity of thrashed grain in the barn before the distribution takes place. The servants receiving a variety of corn, that kind should be first distributed which is found most convenient for the farmer to thrash; and each kind should be delivered, and the barn cleaned out, before another is interfered with.

(1975.) I have already enumerated the different classes of labourers employed on a farm from (244.) to (256.); and I may here mention generally, that the wages of all may be classed under three heads; 1st, Those consisting chiefly of kind, that is, of the produce of the farm, and but a small sum in cash; 2d, Those consisting of a large proportion of cash and small amount of kind; and, 3d, Those which consist entirely of cash. The recipients of the first and third classes may be engaged on the same farm, and the third class may be found exclusively on a farm, but the first and second classes are never found together; and as all three modes of paying wages co-exist in this kingdom, though in different parts of it, they afford a criterion for judging which is the best mode for all parties, for master and servant; which the most convenient for the master, which the most conducive to the servants' comfort and

moral habits. Ploughmen or hinds constituting the principal or staple class of labourers on a farm, like the battalion-men in a regiment, the terms of their wages are taken as a standard of comparison for those of the rest.

(1976.) Ploughmen's rages.-These are paid in all the three modes enumerated above (1975.), the first mode being in general adoption in the Border counties of England and Scotland; the second mode being practised in the midland and northern counties of Scotland; and the third having long been adopted in the southern counties of England.

(1977.) Wages in kind and money differ, in their constituent items, in different counties, but only in a slight degree; the aggregate items affording sufficiency of food to support a ploughman and his family. I shall enumerate the particulars received by the ploughmen of Berwickshire and Northumberland :

To the money value of both particulars I attach no importance, farther than giving to them a tangible form; for the prices of agricultural produce affect neither master nor servant in their relation to one another, the point simply being, that the master supports the servant in an ade

quate manner. Any difference, therefore, shewn in the weekly wages between 10s. 114d. and 11s. 5d., as brought out in estimating the moneyvalue of the particulars, does not in fact exist, because the ploughmen of both counties live equally well. Instead of taking an imaginary rate of prices, I have selected the aggregate average, as given in the Universal Corn Reporter of 20th January 1843. Besides working a pair of horses, the ploughman is bound to supply a field-worker, whether a woman or a boy, usually the former, whenever the farmer requires her services, and who receives for her work 10d. a-day, and in harvest 2s. 6d. a-day, besides victuals. In harvest-wages there is a difference between the two counties, and it is explained in this way. In Northumberland, it will be observed, that the rent of the house and garden is set down at L.3 a-year, whilst the ploughman receives 2s. 6d. a-day, and victuals, for the field-worker in harvest; whereas, in Berwickshire, the ploughman is bound to work the harvest as rent for his house and garden, receiving only victuals, which I have estimated at that season at 1s. a-day for 30 days, which is as long a period as harvest may be expected to last, and which should be deducted from L.3 of rent. There is also a difference in the cow's keep. In Berwickshire, the allowance is 60 stones of 22 lb. of hay in winter in lieu of turnips; but turnips are always preferred, and these are given to the amount of 6 double horse-loads, 3 of white and 3 of Swedes. In Northumberland, 10 cart-loads of white turnips are given, or 5 of white and 3 of Swedes; or, in lieu, 1 ton of hay, or 100 stones of 22 lb.; so that the Northumberland cow is better off by L.1 in winter than the Berwickshire, and the difference is certainly so far an improvement on the condition of the English hind. Both cows have as much straw as they can use. The grain which the ploughman can claim is next in quality to the seed-corn; and in Berwickshire he receives it in advance at the end of the year, which is in the middle of the year's engagement from Whitsunday (May) to Whitsunday. In Northumberland, the corn is paid in advance once a quarter. The corn is ground, in any way the ploughman pleases, at one of the small mills of the country, for the mere miller's multure; so he saves the profits of the retail-dealer. If he cannot consume all his corn, the farmer willingly takes what he has to spare at the current market price. The produce of the cow, over and above what is required to serve the ploughman and his family, may be disposed of; and if the cow is a good one, and the season favourable, and the wife a good dairymaid, a considerable sum may be realized from the cow during the year. Her calf, if early and gotten by a well-bred bull, will fetch L.2, and perhaps more; if late, it may still be worth 20s. The refuse of the dairy, of the garden, and the

house, enables the ploughman to fatten two pigs every year; one for his own use, and the other to dispose of. The cow is the ploughman's own property; and to lose her by death is a serious affliction upon him. I have seen men with families much injured by such a loss, and could never refrain from rendering the poor fellows some assistance. To avert so serious a calamity to a poor man, cow-clubs have been established, to purchase cows for the members who may have the misfortune to lose them. Farmers subscribe according to their number of ploughmen, and each ploughman who wishes to enjoy the benefit subscribes 1s. a quarter to the funds of the club.

(1978.) Wages, more in cash than in kind, are more extensively given in Scotland than the plan which I have just described. Those who receive this species of wages are chiefly single men, living either in the farmer's house, or in a house by themselves called a bothy. The practice of allowing farm-servants to take their meals in the farmer's house is falling fast into desuetude, and its abandonment is much to be regretted, for it is a far better plan for the comfort of the men themselves than the bothy system. But married men are also supported in this form of wages, though their condition is not so good as that of the ploughmen on the preceding plan, but it is certainly preferable to the bothy system.

(1979.) The portion of wages received in kind consists of oatmeal and milk. The meal amounts to 2 pecks per week for each man, that is, 1 stone of 17 lb., which makes 63 bolls per annum, or 65 stones of 14 lb.; and this at 1s. per peck gives a money value of L.5, 4s. a-year. The milk is supplied either fresh from the cow or after the cream has been skimmed off, according to agreement. In the former state it is given to the amount of 1 Scotch pint or 2 quarts a-day; and in the latter state, 3 quarts are given in summer, and 2 in winter. The value of the milk is usually estimated at L.4 a-year. In some cases a cow or cows are supplied to the men, who milk them, and are exchanged for others when they go dry; but supplying milk is the least troublesome plan for the master. These items of kind, with from L.10 to L.14 a-year of cash, varying with the rate of wages in the country, or according to the skill of the ploughman, constitute the earnings of a ploughman on this system. It is only in the amount of cash that these wages vary at any time, for what is given in kind is considered invariable, being no more food than a stout man can consume; but some cannot consume it all, and save a part of the meal, which they either dispose of to the farmer or to dealers. In strict fairness, the meal should be given to the men every week, but to save trouble, it is dealt out once a month or once a fortnight. The milk, of course, is supplied every day.

(1980.) Besides these principal ingredients, the married men get a house and garden rent-free, and coals are driven free to their house. The single men are provided with a room containing a number of beds, which are occupied each by two men ; and the bed-clothes, consisting of a chaff-ticking and bolster, blankets, sheets, and coverlid, are provided by the master, and replaced clean every month. This room is called the bothy, and it usually forms both the sleeping-chamber and cookingapartment of all its inmates, which may amount to as many men as there are ploughmen employed on the farm. The men are supplied with fuel all the year round, with which to cook their victuals, and which they do for themselves. The fuel consists of wood, brushwood, or coal, according to the supplies of the locality; but in winter, coal is always laid in to the extent of 1 ton each man. Salt is also provided by the master; and he also furnishes a pot for cooking in, a dish for holding milk, and some forms, and perhaps a table; but this last article of furniture is often dismissed from the bothy with little ceremony, a form, or the lap, making a much more desirable dinner-board. A few potatoes are generally given in winter.

(1981.) The oatmeal is usually cooked in one way, as brose, as it is called, which is a different sort of potage to porridge. A pot of water is put on the fire to boil, a task which the men take in turns; a handful or two of oatmeal is taken out of the small chest with which each man provides himself, and put into a wooden bowl, which also is the ploughman's property; and on a hollow being made in the meal, and sprinkled with salt, the boiling water is poured over the meal, and the mixture receiving a little stirring with a horn spoon, and the allowance of milk poured over it, the brose is ready to be eaten; and as every man makes his own brose, and knows his own appetite, he makes just as much brose as he can consume. The bowl is scraped clean with the spoon, and the spoon licked clean with the tongue, and the dish is then placed in the meal-chest for a similar purpose on the succeeding occasion. The fare is simple, and is as simply made; but it must be wholesome, and capable of supplying the loss of substance occasioned by hard labour; for I believe that no class of men can endure more bodily fatigue, for ten hours every day, than those ploughmen of Scotland who subsist on this brose thrice a-day.

(1982.) The ploughmen who receive cash for wages, are in the same condition as day-labourers, who receive their earnings once a-week, and purchase their subsistence at retail dealers in country towns and villages. This, I believe, is the condition of most of the ploughmen in the southern counties of England. There is one obvious remark, occa