AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR:]
Sin,—The following conversation may interest you, which I had with an intelligent young Yorkshire farmer about thirty years of age, who lives and works on his father's farm. Hap- pening to meet him recently, I said: "So you have not gone to your new place ? " (For some time past he has been thinking of going into a business in a town.) No," he replied, "and I think it will fall through. Father and mother are trying to persuade me not to go. You see, it's in this way. You can't get men to work on the land nowadays. Not but what there are plenty who would work and never mind the hours if you gave them high enough wages. But that would ruin the farmer. And there are plenty who would work for less wages if they could start by a whistle and know when they had done, like a factory. It's the hours. It's all bed and work. It's hard work too, but I don't mind that. rve been brought up to it all my life, and I like it, yet I want to get away as bad as ever I can do. I feel tied hand and foot. You never can get away to see anything or do anything. Not but what I go about a good deal buying and selling, but you never feel sure of an hour. If things go on as they are doing people must give up farming unless they can get Irish- men." When I asked about the superior attractions of a town, he said :—" They like it for a bit—a day or two, or perhaps a week—and then they would like to get back to the country. They would never stop in a town (unless bred there) if it wasn't for the hours. On a farm, even if you go to bed at 8 o'clock, you never know that you mayn't have to get up to a cow calving, a horse ill, or something of that sort. It's just the hours and nothing else. The Eight-hour Bill would do no good to us, for you can't have two men for every job, and in farming so many things happen that you can't fir a man's time. No, I see nothing for it but big wages, which farmers can't afford till they get more for their produce. At the present time we can buy corn cheaper than we can grow our own, and cattle don't fetch much. It's just the hours, and nothing more." The above was written before I saw the Spectator of Septem- ber 22nd. Your correspondent, " Rusticus," is evidently not aware that the "hands" can talk to one another without difficulty, even in the noisiest factory. The next time he goes through one he may note (if he keeps his eyes open) how the mill girls are obviously discussing him, knowing full.well that he cannot hear though they can. Also he is in error as to the winter work on a farm. The feeding, grooming, and cleaning out the houses of horses and cattle, which during the Gummier are out of doors, take up many hours. If " Rusticus " will reside on a farm during the winter months he will see the men moving about with lanterns till long after dark, and there are very few weeks when he will not find one or more up t.11 a late hour attending to something which must be done then.—
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