price, while on others it is at consuming price of two-thirds the value. Dung is generally paid for. Farmhouses are as a rule fairly good, but the accommodation in many of them is very primitive and not in accord- ance with modern ideas. The average tenant is not, however, very exacting in that respect. On some estates, of course, the houses are excellent. The farm buildings are mostly commodious and afford good shelter for the stock, and the spacious barns are invaluable. Happily the doctrine, which prevailed a few years since, that barns had served their purpose and were no longer wanted, has had its day.
The cottages are generally good and comfortable, if not very picturesque. Most of them have a fair-sized garden, and, where feasible, it will be found that a moderate addition to the garden is vastly more useful to the tenant than an allotment very likely some distance away. Cottage rents in Bucks average from 1s. 6d. to 2s. 6d. per week, but they are a good deal higher in parts of the Thames Valley.
The regular labourers on the farms are tacitly hired by the year. About 13s. a week, with a little extra in hay and harvest time, and from £2 to £3 given at Michaelmas, known as ' Michaelmas money,' is about the average wage. Carters and shepherds get a little more, and the latter usually have head money for the lambs, about 5s. per score on all lambs reared by a certain day.
Unfortunately the outlook for labour on farms generally is not an encouraging one ; and, in the Home Counties within the radius of London's attractive influence, it is a very serious question. There is, moreover, no cottage building going on, owing, among other things, to the restrictions of the County Council's bye-laws. A cottage tumbling to pieces is a far more common sight than one being erected. Agita- tion, however, against these regulations may in the future lead to their relaxation and a renewal of building operations.
In the matter of cattle and sheep, Bucks, unlike many of its neigh- bouring counties, has no distinct breed of its own. Arthur Young, at the end of the i8th century, found the Longhorns in possession, and Youatt, writing later, reports the same state of things. The latter cer- tainly claimed that the Bucks breed of Longhorns was distinct ; modern breeders, however, would hardly agree with him, but would class them with the ordinary Midland stock, the points of difference being too slender to constitute a separate breed. Longhorns are still kept in the late Duke of Buckingham's noted park at Stowe, and certainly the herd is worthy of its beautiful surroundings. If Bucks has no breed of cattle of its own, it certainly contains worthy representatives of most of the best breeds. Shorthorns of the purest and most fashionable strains are to be found in many parts. Notably at Waddesdon Manor, where the Hon. Alice Rothschild has some magnificent cattle capable of holding their own anywhere. Not far away Mr. Leopold Rothschild has at Ascott a fine herd, and near Bletchley Mr. Leon is an active patron of the breed. At Hambleden, near Henley, the Hon. F. Smith has a small but very select herd.
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