The farm labourer in 1872/Meadow and garden allotments for farm labourers
MEADOW AND GARDEN ALLOTMENTS FOR FARM LABOURERS.
Being a paper read at the Leamington Agricultural Congress, May, 1871.
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.
Firstly. That without any very considerable or sudden alteration in wages, any such rise for instance as would upset the economy of the farm or the cultivation of the land, the position of the labourer can be greatly improved, his income increased, his whole condition and value ameliorated by his own exertion on the land—which exertion at the same time acting upon the quality of his labour and enhancing his value as a workman might increase his contentment and attachment to the soil, and eventually exterminate his pauperism—so that the solution of this question will not be by a mere direct rise in wages but by means more fundamental, more drastic, and more human.
Secondly. That although much good may ensue from meeting and conference in imparting information and correcting fallacy, yet this matter will not be settled by speeches or congresses, or even by committees appointed thereat. 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." But whether these propositions be conceded or not, it is of the last importance that at a meeting like this practical Truth and practical suggestion should be heard as to the best means of improving the standard of the worst by the example of the better. 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.
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. It has practically been done in many counties in England, and wherever judiciously managed it has been found to work well, and the plot of ground has come to be highly prized by the labourers. The rent paid is considerably higher than the farmer can afford, and experience shows that they are willing to pay even an exorbitant rent for land at an inconvenient distance, so greatly do they prize the advantage.
Some approach to such an arrangement is made in many places by a grant of potato ground, cultivated by and rented from the farmer; but this is in no wise equal to the allotment on which a labourer can work and invest his spare time, coming by degrees to take a permanent personal interest in it. 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. Some little personal direction and care are useful where many allotments are made, as some few labourers will be found unfitted to hold such; and there should be a stringent rule to give notice where the rent is in arrear. 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.
It might be worth while to mention, as it might easily be shown, that by thus allowing large garden allotments to labourers they would be enabled to pay a fair rent for cottages, say a return of four or five per cent, on the outlay, and this would solve another difficult problem for landlords. Then to some few select and thrifty labourers, and, under strict precautions, a further boon can be accorded in the grant of a few acres of grass to keep a cow. 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; but the elements are not so dissimilar but that like conditions may gradually produce elsewhere like consequences, for it has been observed by competent judges, that this Northern workman, though earning much higher wages than his Southern neighbour, is not an expensive labourer, but rather the contrary, as he does far more and better work.
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. This state of things is adverted to in the Report of the Agricultural Commission by the assistant-commissioner, Mr. Edward Stanhope, and such effects as the following, direct and indirect, may be summarized as resulting from the system, if it can so be called.
1. Selection by means of thrift of the best labourers, reacting upon the rest in the general promotion of provident habits.
2. Elevation of the individual labourer and the whole family by increased self-respect and carefulness, and increased income depending on that carefulness.
3. Supplementation of wages by the labourer's own exertions at no perceptible cost to landlord or farmer.
4. Comparative contentment and comfort with a strong attachment to the place as a labourer.
5. Gradual extinction of pauperism and improvidence, including drunkenness.
And from the experience acquired on this estate, it is probable that if where such small tenements existed, care was taken to utilize them, as prizes to the best and most thrifty of the agricultural labourers, or even attaching them to estates or to a farm, or carving them out of farms, great good might follow in opening a way and a prospect to the best men to rise. A landlord lately in this same county has sub-divided a small grazing farm of twenty acres that was vacant among four agricultural labourers on his estate who had saved money, and other such opportunities would from time to time arise if they are sought.
Then here are two further facts bearing on the same point. 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? Why the man had a small holding of five acres of grass land under his employer. "That man," I said, "depend on it, will never leave you of his own accord." In another district, comprising coal and lead mines, as well as an agricultural population, where some interest was taken in the savings' banks' deposits, it was discovered that whereas many miners (that is workers in the lead mines) put by money, there was hardly a single collier who had a deposit. They were earning wages equally high, and the fact seemed incomprehensible, till on examination it was discovered that whereas most of the miners had a patch of land and a cow, the colliers, owing to the smoke or some other local cause, hardly ever had that advantage; and no doubt invested all their earnings in the public-house. Now the same sort of results are found to follow in other places by a similar system of precaution in allowing only thrifty families to come on the land, and notably on the estate of Mr. Hope Johnson, in Dumfrieshire, where, under the direction of his agent, Mr. Charles Stewart, the effect is thus described by an eye-witness in a report published by the Highland and Agricultural Society:—
"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."
A similar system with similar results obtains in North Derbyshire, and is described by the Agricultural Commissioners' Report. There are two other points, not immediately within the scope of this paper, but bearing on it sufficiently perhaps to be mentioned here.
1. 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.
2. The administration of Poor Law out-relief, which, in some parts, by indirectly supplementing wages, is in fact degrading and lowering the wages of the unskilled labourer. When both employer and employed, as donor and recipients of Out-relief look to the rates as a legitimate fund for indirectly and sometimes directly eking out wages, the effect cannot but be pernicious and demoralizing; and if this Conference only calls attention to this one fatuous fallacy it would not have met altogether in vain. For man, even the most depressed and degraded, is not a machine or an animal. 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. 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.
There is one more point, not quite belonging to the subject of this paper, which is yet one of considerable moment to the agricultural interest. It is the answer to the question. 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. And I say so as one who dare not advance one word or statement that is not founded on strict practical experience.
In most districts, I might almost say on nearly every large farm, something of that obtains, in the allowances made to shepherds for their care and trouble in the lambing season; this can be easily extended to stockmen and some others. The difficulties in the way of a general application of the principle arise partly from absence of strict accounts and partly owing to the uncertain effect of weather and seasons. 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.
By some such means as these described above, it is in the power of farmers as well as landlords to mend this matter, and gradually to improve the position of their labourers, without any very great cost or outlay.
Let all have opportunities of rising and improving their condition. Let the best men feel that they are not dragged down to the levelment of the worst, and let all perceive that it depends on their own exertions whether they rise or not. But don't suppose from anything herein contained, that you can go down into a pauperised district, where a total disregard of the real welfare of the people has been aggravated by a fatuous administration of the Poor Law, and with this or any other plan in your pocket, set all right in a day or in a year. You cannot! You cannot put such a district on a par with one where the results of a totally different policy have left their permanent traces. But you can commence the improvement at once, and perhaps the results of a few months will appear marvellous.
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. By such means, and by some classification and payment by results, or industrial partnerships, he might gradually raise the quality of his labour and the status of his labourer—meanwhile, attaching them to the place more surely than by any Cash-payment devisable; and if his neighbours declined to follow his example, he might come to command the best men in the district. And let the Landlords look to it also, and put off any inertness. 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; to them it may yet be the Glory, as it is assuredly the Duty and Interest to come and help in this matter.