Page:The agricultural labourer (Denton).djvu/30

 counties. When we turn to the statistics giving the occupation of the people in the population returns of the last census, we find that whereas in Lincolnshire, which I select as the best-cultivated county in England, the number of agricultural labourers is 52,871, and the number of people living by the sale of beer is 1317, in Dorsetshire the number of agricultural labourers is 19,434, and the number of persons selling beer and cider is 582, showing a proportion in the former case of one beer-seller to 40 agricultural labourers, and in the latter, one beer-seller to 33 labourers.

The proportion in Lincolnshire is much too high; but what is to be said of Dorsetshire, where the labourers, earning only two-thirds of the wages of Lincolnshire, support a larger proportion of beer and cider sellers? The figures given, moreover, do not fully represent the real state of things as regards the extent to which the beer and cider is drunk in Dorsetshire, as in that county a great deal of cider is given in lieu of money wages, whereas in Lincolnshire no such regular practice prevails either with respect to beer or cider.

But I can illustrate this important part of the question by stating a case, within my experience, which can hardly fail to exhibit the fact that low wages and inferior work are associated with a preponderating use of beer or cider. In the year 1852 I had the control of some extensive drainage works in Dorsetshire, and at that time the agricultural money wages of the district ranged from 7s. to 9s. a week. Impressed that such pay was inconsistent with suitable labour, I imported into the work some north-country labourers from Northumberland, practised in draining, to afford an example for such local men as chose to enter the trenches and dig by the piece. I guaranteed to the northern men a