Page:The farm labourer in 1872.djvu/10

 story. 'If you please. Sir, we've thought better about the rise in wages, but could you let us each have a bit of ground, for our gardens are very small, so that we cannot keep a pig, nor grow vegetables for our families.' That I will," I said, "and a good deal more I've got to say to you now. I've been thinking of our last conversation, and this is what I propose to do.

"1. To give you all a piece of ground, besides your present gardens, of a quarter to one-third of an acre, as conveniently as I can make it, for which you shall pay the same rent as I do. I've settled it with my landlord, who is quite agreeable.

"2. To give you as much task work as possible, so that you'll be able to earn two shillings or three shillings a week more. Turning manure and many other things we've hitherto done by day work, we'll do by piece work.

"3. To give you all an interest in my profits. You know the shepherd already gets so much on each lamb: now I mean you all to be able to earn something in your separate departments in this way. I divide you into two gangs, the men that attend chiefly to the stock, cowmen, shepherds, pigmen; and the men that attend mostly to the crops, ploughmen, waggoners, &c. For every lamb that is reared after the first fifty I shall allow sixpence; for every lamb after the first 150 I shall allow one shilling. I expect about 200 lambs this year, so that the shepherd may