THE AGRICULTURAL LABOURER.
[TO tar EDITOR OF TDB " SPECTATOILl
Sin,—Last week your correspondent " Homo" drew attention to the need of some free time of leisure for agricultural labourers. It may interest your readers to know that • Saturday half-holiday is already the practice on some estates. I have recently given it to the labourers on the farms that are in my own hands, and on which about two hundred men and lads are employed. They leave work at 1 p.m. on Saturdays except during the periods of hay and corn harvest. The carters, foegers, shepherds, &c., arrange among themselves for alternate weeks, or such other modifica- tions as may be rendered necessary by the special requirements of their work. I do not anticipate that the loss of from four to five hours' labour weekly will materially affect the work of the farms, and the men will doubtless work with more zeal on Saturday morning. I trust the time is not far distant when all landowners and tenant farmers will see their way to granting this much-appreciated boon to their labourers. But it is much to be desired that the arrangement should be of a voluntary and friendly nature and not under State legislation
[We most heartily agree with Lady Wantage as to the need for more leisure for the agricultural labourer, and also as to the importance of obtaining this through voluntary effort, and not by the harsh and undiscriminating hand of the State. It is clearly far easier to obtain it on big than on small farms. Yet everyone tells us—and from many points of view we agree—that the State should encourage the small business as against the big !—ED. Spectator.]
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