Page:Agricultural labour.djvu/9

 produced overcrowding and early improvident marriages, with a state of general nomadism; and the boys now getting no proper apprenticeship or discipline the young generation have not the skill of the older men; they cannot thatch or even lay a hedge, much less sheer a sheep in many parts, for their youth was one of roving and change, and no employer found it worth his while to teach them. Then we have the difficulty lately discussed in the Spectator (and also in Oxfordshire rather practically) of how far the tenancy of the cottage should be dependant on the employment. Now it is very desirable in every point of view, economic as well as humane, that the agricultural labourer should be attached to his cottage. The spirit of permanency and attachment will be found a most valuable one to preserve. On large farms, therefore, the better way to meet the tenancy and employment difficulty, to combine permanency and freedom, may be this. To allot some two or three cottages, or more in some cases, to go with every large farm for waggoners and stockmen with a fair notice to quit, the labourer paying rent to the landlord who accepts the farmer's nomination on a change of tenancy, (and if these cottagers were well selected and had the run of a cow on the farm, there would not be much change of tenancy.) To let the rest of the cottages on the understanding that the labourers worked on the estate: this is frequently done, and combines the freedom of the market as it were with the necessary supply of labour. Where boys or single men do not board in a farm house, there may be attached to the cottage of some permanent and trustworthy workman on the farm, a boarding house or second cottage for boys or unmarried men, who might be changing every year without affecting the permanent cottagers. It must be borne in mind that the progress of farming has made the relative difference between classes greater than before; the better way