The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1861-03-26 00:00:00

is by no means the care. I speak from my own know
ledge that more than 30 years ago in counties celebrated
for the high. at farming of the day, the bathos system
was as flourishing as at prescut. The evils thus aggra•
rated by the fact sporting at all rojuired &certain qualifi-
cation of rank or the posse.aion of real property.
Amuining, then, this high preorration of game is of old
date, I am still hot at all surprised that to the tenant
farmers it is now a for greater source of complaint
than it teed, to be. They now, in fanning, fight A
pitched battle with the corn growers of all countries.
They hove no privileges to eenire them a price for their
produce, whieli might, in I,OIIIC degree, compensate for
the less a a portion of it. Ily the use of eseendie joe
perted ant artificial manure:, and ft very bold sinking
14 Ca pant in the soil, they can alone hope to contend
with the foreign grower* of corn. timid fanning io now
• matter of very close caleul ition ; the losi of so many
poles of this or that field's produce, by the feedins of
hares and rabbits, is a twitter iluniy appreciable in the
calculation of any given year's probable mime. Gsusl
farming i alineet ganlen farming, and it is easy to
imagine the annoyance to the eye, as well as to the
pocket, which the ravages of these large numbers make
on the farm. It is my belief that by degrees the ',relent
very high preservation if game will diminish, Mid at
last cease altogether wherever it exists, to the injury of
highly-cultivated land. I shall he glad if it does, furl
know how much moral oili it produces, irrespective of
that particular evil of which I arn now speaking. I
do not, however, expect, nor do I ihoire to SW the day
when landlords shall cease to take pleasure in the
sports of the field. The right of "chase" bas ever been
the meat jealously guarded privilege of the owner of
landed property. Thu value of land has ever been much
enhanced from the fact that it secures facility for sport-
ing purposes, thus affording a great source of amuse-
ment to the owner and his friends. ;Still it
cannot be denied that all reasonable indulgence
in sporting may be obtained on an estate at a far less
positive coat to the tenantry than is now but too often
the case in many counties. There is a limit at which
the exaction of a right borders on the perpetration of
a wrong. As to the duty of the landlord in the matter
it resolves itself into this; Is he dealing as he would be
dealt by, if he systematically keep* up a large head of
gams so close to a tenant's occupation as necessarily to
inflict much injury on that tenant, admitting that he
has the clear right to do so by the actual letter of the
lease, under which the said tenant occupies? I may be
told there is a compensation clause in the lease or
agreement, giving • right to claim eayinent for damage
done. I confess I regard rich a clause, however just 1111
theory, to be one which in practice is rarely available
for the purpose for which it is ostensibly drawn. The
amount of damege is a matter so open to dispute in its
discussion, to likely to provoke ill feeling ; the reluct-
ance on the part of the tenant, for fear of giving offence,
to make the claim is so natural, that I fear these
clauses, common as they are, exist far more to challenge
attention to • very possible injury, than to pave the
way for its redress. In my opinion it is the duty of
the landlord, who retains the right to preserve game
for his amusement, though at the same time, in that
fair spirit of forbearance to his tenantry, which good
foaling demand" whore be cannot doubt but that much
Injury has been done, not waiting for a claim of
compensation, but in • generous spint himself inviting
it. Lendlords should bear in mind that the modern
custom of only beating their best preserves at the very
close of the sermon, not allowing any wholesale
destruction of ground game, until these covers have
been shot over, throws on the neighbouring farina the
support of the hares and rabbits, not only for • longer
time, but for that particular season in which they do
the most mischief, especially to the root crops. There
can be no doubt that the practice pursued on many
estates of selling the gauze has aggravated the imitations
of the tenantry in the matter wherein there has been
much damage done; with some tenants they say their
farms cease to be mere pastime for birds and animals
which are to give their lanllord and his friends sport;
they are grazing fields for stock, much of which they
breed and feed, but he, for his own profit, sends to
market. I have never yet discussed this subject with
any liberal-minded landlord who did not allow the full
weight of the evil this high preserving produces between
tenants and the owners of land. To me it is an evil
not the less to be deplored, because it is so patiently
endured, and this in many cases from a dislike on the
part of the tenants to act in any way offensively
towards Landlords who have proved kind and considerate
In everything else. There can be no doubt but that in
days gone by to speak on this rubject as I have done,
world have been considered an act scarcely less heinous
than an attack upon some cherished preroative of the
Crown, so completely has the right of "free chase"
been held as almost the sacred prerogative of the land-
owner. Sorry indeed should Ibe to see the landowner
deprived of any of theme privileges, any of that whole-
sale deference which the English are ever ready to
accord bin, ; but it is vain to regard the subject in its
ancient light; the whole nature of soil cultivation,
—the character of the tenantry is so changed,
that what was once in reasonable use, a fair and proper
concession to the landowners' position, is now, when
pushed to an extreme, and unreasonable tax on the for-
bearance of the tenant. I must also add that the injury
done is not confined to mere destruction of farm ',re-
cluse ; the labounng-men on an estate are not deep
thinkers, are not accustomed to refine on the subject of
strict right ; the game on an estate highly preserved
becomes to them like the gaudy gin palace to the poor
of towns—a lure to evil, but too often entanglinr, the
ateadfart, from which the young and adventurous seldoin
escape. I turn now to the duty of the landlord in re-
gard to what is called the landlord's dwelling question.
'The actual manual work of an estate is done by men,
women and children. These require dwellings, in which
they can live in their own proper character as human
beings like ourselves. Within • reasouable distance, if
not directly connected with the homesteads, it is
necessary that there should be proper dwellings for genie
of the chiefs of the farm staff, whose business is the
most important and more immediately connected with
the stock and machinery there situate. Ido not think
It the duty of the landlord to find a dwelling for every
labourer employed on the estate ; at all seasons of the
year there is not the same demand for labour, and it
does so happen in ordinary seasons, at the time of the
greatest demand for labour on largo arable farms, the
extra power is obtained without much difficulty, as at
that time labour employed in other ways is to a great
extent set free. It was to myself for • long time •
anxious preblem,how under the modern system of almost
perpetual cropping, and the great increase each year of
frail land broken up into arable, the labour market was
to be supplied, the power necessary to gather the crops
to the barns and rickyard so much exceeding that re-
quired to get it into the soil. The rapid invention and
improvement of machinery for harvest purposes is solv-
ing the apprehended difficulty. Still a large amount of
available labour is necessary in agricultural districts. I
shall not go into the question how much should be pro-
vided for an estate of any given extent, for this I believe
would not be stated with any approach to reasonable
truth, depending as it does on calculations which them-
selves must depend on local circumstances, very valuable
in their nature. I shall confine myself to the statement
how I think it is the duty of the landlord to
house or home that amount of the labouring class
he might have for his own purpose, and the work
of his tenantry living on his own property. lam no
advocate for cottages constructed with a good deal of
the ornamental character. I assert it to be the lend-
lord's duty to regard the labourer as one who should
possess honesty, Industry, decency of life, good health,
and skill in his calling gained from the use of a training
offered him to fit him to attain it. In other words, as
you want strong, respectable labourers, understanding
their business; as these must be housed, it follows that
the dwelling should be adapted to the dweller, to such a
one as a labourer of his character could inhabit with
reasonable hope of living in decency, in health, in hon-
esty, with no avoidable impediment to his rearing his
family under the circumstances, in perfect harmony with
the character expected in himself. In estate management
It is most important that much discretion should he
used in this matter of housing the labourers. It is •
department of duty requiring constant supervision—
kind, but very firm use of authority. There are large
and small families, able couples with no families or
very small ones, grown up single men and women, all
to be provided for. Again, at harvest time, there will
be a great influx of foreign labour ; all this has to be re-
garded, that in building or altering cottages, erecting
large farm buildings, provision may be made to secure
what is necessary in the most convenient way and at
the least expense. I believe with forethought and good
management, this end may be obtained, and the
various families and individuals so located in houses
adapted for them, that all the hateful and degrading
association of the sexes by night may be done without
overcrowding or breach of common decency. The mar-
ried labourer under the operation of the law of settle-
ment is much restricted from any voluntary change of
the field of his life's labour; he Le therefore in the matter
of his dwelling in • very great devise at the mercy of
him who possesses the land where by the law he is
settled, for he cannot seek work far from his own
pariah. I am truly happy to say that I see and hear
on aU sides proof that the obligation in this
matter of the landlord is generally admitted
and gradually acted on. Decent habits can
only exist in dwellings where the spaces, and the
structure are adapted to give them fair play. It is of
no use revelling the present race of labourers, because
they are eften inclined to set aside decency, when the
landlord provides them with the means of preserving it.
We must bear in mind how they were reared. The,
real action of new habits will not show itself until
another generation exists, to whom education has taught
decency, and the better dwelling has given opportunity
to preserve it. However much many of you will differ
from me, I am clearly of opinion that the landlord
should hold all his cottages in his own hands, under his
own direct control. I consider all sub-letting to be a
great evil. It is, as I have said, a clear duty of the land-
lord, to find a certain number of dwellings conveniently
situated for the chief farm servants- this affords to
the tenants liberty to put such serrants into them, and
It may perhaps be said that these are likely to be some
of the most respectable and orderly of their race. I
grant it, but as 'I hold the landlord to be in duty answer-
able for the supervision of the whole economy of his
estate, and especially as regards the sustaining order
and decency amongst the poorest and most numerous
class elms upon it, as he has to see that the repairs
dwelling are done, and that his own provision for the
moral conduct of the labouring class is not abused.
consider he can only edeetually do so by holding his
cointuitaps...in
ahistboownwhttagancles.
servants, he would always listen to say fair application
;sttapartof coror"thlaulchur,fltahrmat