Baldwyn Leighton

“ What we chiefly value in the system is its marked effect in producing and perpetuating an orderly, respectable and well-conditioned peasantry. The problem which is generally looked upon as so difficult of solution is here solved with eminent success. It has been shown to be quite practicable to elevate the labouring man, not only without burdening the farmer or 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. ”

“ Is it possible to introduce into farming any industrial partnership, such as already obtains in manufactures? that is to say, by the farmer or employer giving, in addition to the weekly wages, other extra payments depending upon his own profits. I venture to assert, speaking from practical knowledge, that something of the sort is possible and desirable, and would also be for the advantage of employer as well as employed. ”

“ It must be left to every farmer for himself to work out how best to put such a plan into practice—but certain I am that every farmer who in these days wishes to make farming profitable, would do well to consider how to give to every labourer on his farm some sort of an interest in the profits of that farming. ”

“ Before attempting to explain how in certain places the condition of the labourer has been improved by allowing him some small share in the land on which he lives by way of allotments and cowland, it may be allowable to state two facts which, whether they be accepted or rejected, whether they be contradicted to-day and acquiesced in to-morrow, or otherwise, are nevertheless the result of distinct practical experience. ”

“ Thus a farmer employing say half-a-dozen labourers might, by apportioning one or two acres out of his farm, give each a quarter or a third of an acre, which would probably be more valued by the men than a considerable rise of wages; and at the same time, he might hold out a prospect to any of his men who should have saved sufficient money to give them a run for a cow, or apportion another two acres for that purpose. ”

“ If he is to be of any account, of any real use to an employer or a farmer he must have some other outlook and distraction than the beershop—some better prospect than the workhouse. The want of sympathy and intelligence sometimes displayed, especially about the southern counties, in the depression of the rural labourer, caused by the careless and pernicious—it would not be too much to say the atrocious administration of Poor Law, as yet uncorrected by the central Board—call aloud for amendment and cure. ”

“ And first by way of garden allotments—In some parts of England it is the custom to attach to every cottage, a considerable and sufficient garden of say one-quarter or one-third of an acre. This is chiefly the case where the cottages are scattered and not grouped together in villages; but there are many more districts where the garden attached to a cottage is miserably insufficient. Now it is in the power of every landlord and every farmer to remedy this state of things, at no perceptible loss to himself by letting off in portions, of say one-quarter of an acre, some field or part of a field. ”

“ In some parts of Northumberland it is the habit to allow the run of a cow to some or all of the labourers; in the Agricultural Commissions Report I find one case where a farmer had ten labourers, each of whom kept his cow on the farm. Besides being a source of considerable profit to the man, through the labour of his wife, it enables him to rear strong healthy children; and possibly to that cause may partly be attributed that fine type of agricultural labourer, that race of permanent giants there found, though something also must be due to nationality, and their superior education and thrift ”

“ A gentleman farmer, cultivating his own land, told me he had a bailiff, or foreman, to whom he could only afford to pay eighteen shillings a week, but who he said was worth half as much more, yet he never thought of leaving him, or asking for more wages, and what was the secret of that? ”

“ The land ought to be held in connection with a farm, or an estate, so long that is as the labourer worked thereon. The results of this system, as shown on my own estate, in raising the labourers, and inducing them to save money, and so placing them in a condition of comfort and independence, notwithstanding low wages, is quite inconceivable. ”

“ The produce of the ground, generally potatoes and grain, makes a considerable addition to his income, but the human aspect of the system and the contentment produced, with the attachment and interest in the soil, in what is most striking in the result, and the time snatched perhaps from the public-house and the zeal and care called forth in the labourer elevating him as a man and improving him as a workman. ”

“ But in the case of the farmer with his labourers, he would have no difficulty in cutting off an acre or two of his farm and sub-letting it at a fair or even recuperative rent; and it seems a very small matter, where such advantage and contentment are found to ensue, for the labourer to ask or for the farmer to concede so much of interest in the soil on which he lives. ”

“ If it be conceded, as it must, that the position of the farm-labourer in some parts is one of comparative comfort, that is to say compared with the unskilled labourer in towns and elsewhere, it must be also asserted that his position in other parts, especially in the south of England, is capable of and does require great amelioration. ”

“ For if you raise the wages, you ought also to raise the labourer, and I think it might be shown that the ordinary able-bodied labourer, with increased alacrity and zeal, could easily earn twenty-five per cent more wages by doing twenty-five per cent more work, and be cheap at the money to the farmer. ”

“ If he have any intelligence whatever, he must have movement, progress, and object before him; he must have some practical motive and reason to be respectable, thrifty, energetic, careful, and the like. ”

“ Much ignorance prevails on the subject in many places, and it is difficult to get employers sometimes to understand how expensive low paid labour may be; in some places the farmers seem a little jealous of the men having land, but that is chiefly from not understanding how it should be allotted. ”

“ Now, concerning this allotment of cow lands, it has been found on an estate where many such places exist, that by holding them out as prizes to those labourers who had saved money, who actually had an account at the Savings' Bank amassed by themselves, very considerable inducement was afforded to thrifty habits, and opportunities for investment with a prospect of comparative comfort were held out which indirectly has had a most beneficial effect on all the neighbourhood. ”

“ Their personal direction and sympathy are not a little required down in these rural districts; and the mal-administration of the poor law is greatly their concern. To them is still the Kingdom and the Power ”

“ It will be settled by landlords, farmers, labourers and others down in their several districts, on every estate and farm by personal devotion and practical experiment rather than by canvass and talk, or what a great writer has described as "swarmery." ”

“ The prohibitory regulations of the enclosure commissioners as to cottage building prevent money being taken up by landlords through the companies. If two or three practical men were put on the commission, there need be no great difficulty about cottage accommodation. ”

“ By a system of greater classification, such as is in use among contractors and others, where men will be working side by side at three shillings, two and sixpence, and two and threepence per day respectively. One man is cheap at sixteen shillings per week, another is dear at eleven. ”