THE PROBLEM OF BRITISH AGRICULTURE. [To the Editor of the
SPECTATOR.]
Sue,—In your article on " The Problem of British Agriculture "• the writer says good work " was never done on bad wages." In the heyday of the Scottish Lothians—the early 'seventies— I can say from personal experience, if such a truism needed repeating, that the farm labourer was probably the most efficient that the world has ever seen. His wages, paid partly in kind, totalled about 14s. a week. In Wiltshire, at the same period, the labour, judged by a Southern standard, was at its very best, and I was associated with a large farm where the men getting 11s. a week struck for a rise of 2s. In recent years, when wages have been thrice the old figures, it will, I think, be agreed all round that the work and will given for them has never been so unsatisfactory. Three years ago, with the very best of reasons for expressing an opinion, I wrote to the Spectator that the arrangements were fore- doomed to failure. You, Sir, in a footnote differed from me. I am not defending low wages, but merely stating facts.—
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