The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1867-04-02 00:00:00

AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS.

Ors of the most remarkable "sign, of the times'.
in counection with the labour question, is th•
"strike" of agricultural labourers, at Oawoott,
Buckinghamshire, for 124. a week Sad is. for Sunday
work, in the place of its. or 10a. • week, for which
sum they have worked all the winter; and there
are abundant indications that they will obtain the
advance they demand, if not in their own neighbour.
hood, elsewhere. The "strike" appears to have
been occasioned, not by the fernier' being unwilling
to pay the current market price of the labour they
require, but by their adopting the specious fallacy
which finds expression In the words, "Wages, like
wateri always find their own level, and the
labourer", if they could better themselvee, would be
sure to do so." This is a truth of wide application,
but is the case of the agricultural labourers iii. in.
operative, from the fact of the tenacity with which
they cling to the locality and people where they
have been reared, their ignorance of information as to
where better wages may bri obtain ed, and their inability
to take advantage of such knowledge if imparted to
them from want of even the small mean* requisite
for a removal. if, however, "strikes" become the
fashion in our agricultural district., which we trust
will not be the case, the action of committees
similar to that Gawoott will remove the difficulties
which igioranc• interposes, and, in some measure
also, Ivo may anticipate, the disinclination to leave
the old familiar village, while the agitation they
would occasion and the feeding of distrust
towards employers engendered thereby, would
sadly mar the peace and good will which now so
generally prevails in the rural districts. To avert
such • state of thing., the agriculturist must be
piepared to make then conoeseions in the matter of
labourers' wages as the circumstances of the times
require, and we are disposed to think that they
equally with the labourers would be benefited by any
increase of the servants' pay, in decreased poor•rates
and the more efficient work of men better fed and
with fewer temptation, to diahonesty. But in
estimating the amount of wages paid to agricultural
labourers in various district., an important element
in the calculation will be the relative payments in
"kind" in addition to money in the several localities.
In illustration of this., and as the wens wise, se
showing the true condition of the Dorset labourer,
we quote the following from Saturday's Agricultural
Gazette from the pen we have reason to believe of a
Poreetshire farmer and • learned professor of the
science of agriculture :

"In an onion recently tried at Dorchester, when the
plaintiff, John itidout, sought to recover damages from
the SonthAVestern Railway Company for the deeth of
him wife, cursed at an illegally constructed erasing, the
constantly vued question of a Dorset labourer's weirse
was again a subject for comment, and not • little
ridicule. The plaintiff in his examination, stated that
' he was • farm labourer, getting 9s. a week ;' but his
mater, when interrogated on this point, stated that
his average wages amounted to 13e. oer week. Now,
having inquired into this seeming discrepaney, we find
upon an analysis of the wages amount paid to John
Nidout and his fellow labourers, the cue pretty much
as follows :-9., a week is the nominal weekly pay of
all the ordinary men on the farm on which the said
John Ridout works, esoept one outer, to whom the
muter has given fla. 64. since taking first prim at a
ploughing match. The discrepancy between the
amounts of the master and the man arises from the
customs of the county, and some of these customs may
now be stated. They are—lit, 'psi-work,'' teak -work,'
'work by the gret,' ker. 2nd, harvest money. 3rd,
coals. 4th, cottage and garden rent-free. As
to the first point, hosing, reaping, mowing,
ke., are taken by the job at so much an acre, and extra
wages can be earned at such work. Hot (2), as the
carters cannot be spared to do many "put-work" jobs,
they have so much a year harvest money; and (3), coals
are hauled for eaeh labourer, though it Is only the
shepherd and carter who to • certain extent have them
found. (4). The Pottage. in Dorset are probably not
better than those of other counties, and they certainly
are not worse, and they have usually very good sized
gardens attached to them. These are found for the
more permanent farm servants; and, for those for
whom they are not oetensibly provided, they are usually
let at as little as a shilling a week. If, then, we take
these matters into consideration, in the cue before
Y. WO find that the average pay is nearly 13s. 61. a
week, excluive of eider, of which there tan liberal pro-
vision for each man. The arrangements that are made
with different kinds of fuse percent, tend very mush
to an equalisation of wages, but it is the height of
folly to suppose that the Destined weekly wage is the
whole of the laboure's income. In so far., Dorset is
concerned, we roulade wages to be quit* as good cc

0614 of oilier purely agricultural mantles, and It behove.
lown-mads philantropfsisie to try to nodostand the
true nature of the eats before they make nosy
Oficial speeches anJ write 'rotational articles je
the Dorset or any other scanty labourers' wages We
mush with, however, that some Om could be devised
to make the wages of the labottrer wore nertalo and
regular, and nitre ifs peftdUnt rikn the eapafflity of the
man ; but It la With the faint servant as with the
mechanic, for although the former mu )et has no Trade
Union, yet he keeps b 0 pertinaciously to his ways and
customs that he rebels against an advanoe of woges to
one if not give.s to another. Ttere is also, we are
! sorry to find, another very serious grievance, illustrative
! of a low condition altogether of the latiouring class,
which nest, of eosin., he "emoted )7.• filet dir.lierg.
of the dials. both of muters and of guardians, but
which Is in the meantime taking soot in WADY Don.et
parishes Whenever work is somewhat scarce. the
young men urge their elders to apply to the Union.
tlsny an elderly man who could do work Dot requiring
full strength or constant application, applies for per.
manent relief, and when so disposed of, the younger
men are not only employed lut paid full wage, for
what I. aten malty women's work, and this Is more
especially the case when woman ar,. • „',toyed I. tech
work as gloving, siraw.plaiiing, and the like for 110010
neighbouring town. These f.ets, and the erroneous
notion, of the smallness of *ages, Ira doubling our
Porn' rates, as whenever • Dome man is ykod by the
guardian y to his amount of wages, be invariably says
• 91, a week, and perhyis a shilling or so extra DOW
and then,' so that the real earnings are seldom under-
stood ; and so again in the matter of gloving it is next
to impossible to airsertaln the tete at which they are
paid ; but let not the toWnsdsan talk Of the lottnewe of
country *ages upon such evidence as is tbus obtained,
for by this same rule the manufacturer must cut an
equally sorry figure. Thus, we have been told. over
and over again, at the nom* of Cussedly's, that gloving
Is paid for at the rate of ' J. per Pair, by whieb soma
Is. 91 or 2e can be earned weexly by • good baud,'
whereas it is plain to any one that the gloving ladies
dress at • rate which such figures can by no means
explain. The truth is that the mere labourer gets
pretty much the same is town and country for a given
quantity of mere work, but the wages are paid aceordi
ing to so many customs that the sum named is really no
or tsrion whatever of the amount received, or the
advantage' awning under different eircumstinoe.."