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.

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    conduct was removed. It was in the next place found that the apprentices were generally the worst characters amongst the hoys; they were commonly the children of parents who did not take any care about them ; for the best parents were those that kept themselves and their children off the parish. The apprentices in most instances turned out badly; that was the rule. Those apprenticed rarely served out their time; they ran away when they reached 16 or 17. There was hardly anything but discontent between the apprentices and their masters; the apprentices behaved badly, and their masters felt that there was a sort of injustice practised towards them in their being compelled to take servants that they did not want, or that were of no use to them. A practice affecting the condition of the labourers, and which cannot be too much condemned, is the paying part of the wages of the men, women, and even boys, in cider. It is generally said by the farmers that the work cannot be done without cider, but I can produce practical proofs to the con- trary. I, myself, have totally abstained from cider, beer, and all other spirituous drink, for the last six years, and during that time have worked as hard in farm-labour as any of the men I have employed. I have some labourers who have also abstained from such drinks for some time. They work quite as well as the men who drink, and in all respects ate quite as well in health. They and their families are much better off also, in conse- quence of such abstinence. I give them the regular wages in money paid by other farmers ; but instead of the cider I give them a potato-ground of about half an acre, from which are got 120 bags of potatoes, of 120 lbs. each, per annum. I dress the land for them, and haul the potatoes when dug up; the labourers find and plant the seed, they keep the ground clean, and dig the potatoes. It is nearly all done, however, by their wives and children. Thus, instead of consuming a part of their wages in drink, as is generally the case, my labourers I am speaking of at the end of the year find them- selves with a large stock of potatoes on hand, which, in addition to contri- buting very much to the support of the family, enables them to keep and fat a pig, which again pays their rents. These are clear and practical proofs of the benefit to the labourer of abandoning the system of paying or making up his wages in cider. He, himself, his wife and family, are all much better off; in a physical point of view very much better off; and in a moral point of view there is no comparison to be instituted between a sober la- bourer and one who drinks. If no more cider were drunk than that in the fields, and allowed by the farmer, the consequences are bad enough ; but the habit of drinking, so general amongst the labourers, arises out of, and is in a great degree fortified by, this practice of the farmer paying wages in the manner mentioned. As soon as a boy begins to work at 9 years old, he is encouraged to drink by the farmer ; and from that time the habit gains ground, and it is nearly impossible to eradicate it afterwards. I consider the practice of giving a young man cider in lieu of higher wages to be the great cause of the prevalence of the vice of drunkenness in these counties. No. 51. Statement of Horatio Nelson Tilsey, Esq., of North Pclherlon, Somer- setshire, Surgeon, and one of the Medical Officers of the Bridgwater Union. I have been engaged here for the last 17 years in my professional capa- city ; my district is purely agricultural, and my acquaintance with it. is one of great intimacy. The able-bodied labourer is at this moment in the receipt of 7$. a-week, but there are instances of its being no more than 6s., out of which he pays house-rent of at least ]«., and frequently \s. Cd. a-weck.