Reports of special assistant poor law commissioners on the employment of women and children in agriculture.

  • Board of guardians
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Reports of special assistant poor law commissioners on the employment of women and children in agriculture. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

    140/404 (page 120)
    MR. A. AUSTIN ON THE COUNTIES OF b^gSKSf J*KB1* W£ improved by is not the Se of thTaSon «ltV , * ™USt be reiuenibcred that that boys of honest industrious parents. The system onc^tcs wKn parish. U* °Wn misconduct> not ^frequently are a burthen to the No. 50. Mr.- Some'rs, of Othery, SomersetsHreyice-ch^vmmx of the Bridgwater Union, examined. n J!'* P<fih °J Jthery contain* 1800 acres of land, and there are 52 occu- f-J? l^aS-tUr!i°r gl'azing farms women aie employed from six weeks to two months m the year in the hay-harvest. In the dairy fa m^ women 0 ™ch employed these farms being small hereabouts, ad the wtfe of the farmer performs all the important work, which is also the most labo SZVn 65 ,that ait empl°yed' are emPlQyed in Part of the drry-woik ^s^ss^?r^ during that time 4^lM *™7^ar8 ileSil.imp!°1yed °n Pasture than on ai-able farms. On pasture- farms they do little odd jobs, but on arable lands they keep birds, drive the plough, see after the cattle morning and evening, and plough accorSL to their ages. They are generally employed at 9 years 5d^ftS?2w« STuror£'.eXOeptJUSt ^ Wintel''and thenfr°™ beUveen seven 5335 uJfJtSt i]ley-fet 3d-*i*Y and a pint of cider, then 8d. a-day with three half-pints of cider, and then the regular wages of men. BeUveen IhlZ periods the wages go on increasing pretty regularly; but it depends upon Sn,.S- i,udsometimeAs %e master; a younger boy is sometimes wo o do tmaann°y hurt * ** * ^ ^ n0t at a11 Calculated About 16 years ago, a meeting of the rate-pavers in vestry aereed to revive the old system of apprenticeship, which had been disused some time SSSffi1 £XM V 76 lhlm and the parentS °f the children> a3 al be beneficial to the children themselves. In three or four years there were 28 children bound. The system of binding to occupiers in dales m rota fon was adopted, something similar to the plan at Bridgwater. The first one- ration of the system was the depression of the respectable labourers Their children were turned off by the farmers to make room for the apprentices they were obliged to take. This discouragement to the good labourers drove hem to seek for employment for their children in other parishes, and also to remove themselves. The parish, therefore, lost the best part of its la- bouring population, whilst the paupers remained. All stimulus to good