LAND AND THE LABOURERS:
ITO THE EDITOR 01 THE " $PECTATOR:1
SIR,—A little more than twenty years ago the then vicar of- this parish, now the Dean of Ely, published a book, "Lani and the Labourers," which was most favourably reviewed by the Spectator. In that book he mentions an experiment which he had then recently made in breaking up a twenty acre field of his glebe into allotments. It may interest the readers of the Spectator to know the result of that experiment, now that it has been tried for seine twenty-five years. Thirty
years ago this village was in a very bad condition. A large number of the able-bodied labourers had, when the harvest and the autumn ploughing were over, to take refuge in the workhouse ; many others were only prevented by the pluck and pride which they had inherited from their Danish ancestors from taking the same course. Only yester- day, one of our labourers told me that in 1870 he was for sixteen weeks not making more than 6d. a week. Those days are past, there is less pauperism in this village than in any other in the neighbourhood, except Waddesdon and Claydon, which, from other causes, are exceptional. No able-bodied man has for some years had to fall upon the parish in the winter. The change is, by the consent of all the labourers, due to Dean Stubbs and his allotments. Since the time at which he broke up his field, allotments have been multiplied, so that now four other large fields have been broken up. Now there is always plenty of work to be done, and plenty of available labour for the hay harvest, and better still, a great advance in independent spirit among the labourers. The man whom I mentioned above now holds six acres of allotments, and was able to put down £7 of ready money for pigs and other things three days before my rent day; others hold three or four acres. More wheat is grown on the allotments than in all the rest of the parish put together, and while all the clergy round are deploring the fall in rents, the vicars of Cranborough have only had to reduce their rents from guineas to pounds, while only to-day I received a deputation of four labourers asking me to accept them as tenants of another eleven-acre field of permanent pasture at the present rent, they to fence it off into suitable portions, and paying rent in advance. At the same time they have established a most flourishing co.operative store, which paid last year a divi- dend of 2s. in the pound on all purchases. We are now endeavouring to establish a Poultry Association, to supply eggs direct to the London consumers. I may be perhaps allowed in this connection to say that I shall be pleased to be the medium of communication between any reader of the Spectator and the Association. I venture to think that these facts are worth notice, and are a proof of how much can be accomplished by one man in a small village.—I
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