The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1854-12-23
Agricultural.
ADDRESS,,
Delivered before the Agricultural Society OF
Montgomery County, September 18th, 1854.
BY CIIAUNCEY P. HOLCOMB,
OF DELAWARE.
Continually

| d. NIltAl .NCT1 I1ULOOMD,
OF DELAWARE.
CONTINUALLY
But to get selection of the best of these
laborcrs-thosc trained from their youth uI
in the details of careful and neat husbandr,
it would almost justify trip to Devon
shire, where farm labor is said to be cheaper
than in any other part of England. But !
would not, by any means, confinc the choice
to foreigners. Our own countrymcn. either
white or black, when they could be had,
would often he preferable.
We must take All interest in them, and
make their homes comfortable. The English
| proprietor takes great interest in his tenants
his ''cottagcrs,' as he calls them-and is
proud to show you their neat, comfortable
dwellings; and will take care, at the same
time, to let the GUIDE wife show you her neat,
clean cottage, her ruddy children, and cup
boards filled with crockcry ware: the latter
the crockcry warc-in the opinion of the own
or Of both, seeming, however, to challenge
the most admiration.
sThis tenant labor is what we, in Delaware.
a good deal depend upon at present, especial
ly among the larger cultivators. Twenty
five dollars year is the price usually allow
cd the landlord for the rent of the house and
garden: and fifty cents day, and board, is
paid for labor, furnishing regular work, all
fair days, for nine or ten months. Some
times through harvest, harvest wages are
paid: or where the tenant is hired by the
year, $50, Sl40, or $50: or $40 or SIC a
month is paid, as the parties may bargain.
These laborcrs, lodging themselves, are less
in the way than young men. Then they are
much easier paid; it is felt less, as they are
paid, to considerable extent off the farm
thus making home market. Then they arc
reliable; they are always there, for their
families are there, and sometimes the wife,
or the junior members of the families, may
be of service and can be called OH in the hur-
ry and press of harvest, or at other times,
for light jobs or for domestic labor. To be
surrounded by an industrious yocmanry of
this kind, comfortably fed and lodged should
be gratifying to the proprietor, and will make
him feel strong for executing business on the
farm. The relation is patriarchal and is an
interesting one; but the interest of the pro-
prietor should not be confined to getting work
out OF his men, and even paying them fairly
for it. lie should interest himself to know
that they spent their means wisely. inquire
how they were getting on, how they were
likly to make the ends of the year meet, be
sure that the garden was we'll cultivated,
that garden seeds were provided, and even
propose, with all or any of his tenants, a
generous competition for producing the best
and earliest vegetables; thus, by little ad-
dress, exciting their emulation, and insuring
an abundance on their humble, but neat
spread boards. The tenant will soon realize
that he is getting on well, and will be con-
tented and the contentcd man is always best
prepared to discharge his duties. Is this per-
sonal interest in his laborers and tcnantry
too great task on the proprietor On the
contrary, he should find his happiness in it,
for he would often realize that while thus
promoting his own ends, he was dischargng
high Christian duties, the duties of philan-
thropy and benevolcRcc. There is a certain
kind of society, too, to be found by the we'll
regulated mind, in intercourse with these I'M
lettered sons Of toll. The man who always
preserves his own self-respect will be in dan.
ger from any familiarity of not receiving the
respect of others. Such permanent tenants
get to take all interest in the farm and in the
success Of its operations, for they feel their
own is identified with it. That these views
may not seem to rest merely OH theory, l
may add that have half dozen Of these
tenants on my own estate, who have been
with me, most Of them, for several years: and
have found the relation, as have describ-
cd it, one Of the best that can exist in the
absence of other labor between the proprietor
and the hands on his farm. ~. 4.
Next to this description Of labor-perhaps.
indeed, where it is practical to obtain it,
equal to it, and, on the score Of expense, even
preferable to it's apprentice labor. This
relation of master and apprentice is as old as