GRUEL VERSUS BEER.

At a meeting of the Gloucestershire j Chai»W of Agricnllure, held at GloucesUrßhiioon April '2B, MrG. B. Witts, railway ctinlvuolor, suid, as the subject of H'ivi!\<; outiJieiil fiMifcl hud baon mentioned, h« thought it might interest the Ohomber if ht» rtenlioned the remits of the largo experience ho had hud iv this matter. For upwaids of sixtoen jeurs ho employed or had thoraahagemmit of i\ great number of men— probably the avengo was from 2000 to 3000 emy year. It was naturally tho object to got as much work as poesibln out of thtae men, who were of all olnssiß— Btoiio moaoijp, blfcltimitlis, ra'l way navvies, ftud every dtsc iption of laborers. Hn hurl givin<? the uitii drink, and ho trivd not {I'ving ilia men drink, and ho had no hefiimtion in aajing that if ono wanted to got an much work out of a mm m poijiible one should not give him intoxicating drinks. 110 ivaa not. a tretotaller, and did uot ndvocate teetotaliim, but ho did ad\ocate inodcrntion; and he knew from *xp. ritfiico that if one wanted to j>et the pri^te^t muouutof woikout of a man, it would bo found that tho man could not <Jo i ho work uo well on b«er and cider as on the material which haefljeeu mentioned — oatmeal gruel. A few jwn ago, daring a rory hot summer, be had 3000 men Under

him, and was continually receiving letters and telegrams urging him to push en tho men, mid make them work overtime and got ovory partiole of work out them. It was suggasced that barrels of beer should bt* put about. He tried'feivlng them beer and oider, and soon found that it did not act, They then carfntid to give the men anything, but allowed the men to bring t heir own drink. Th»t did not act. They then p«33ed a resolution, and put up largn printed notices to the effect that no drink of any sort or kind waa to be allowed on the works, but that tho authorities would supply any quantity required of very well cooked oatmaftl gruel, mtaed with sugar and salt — and the salt was avery important item. It was astonishing to sco the differjjenci) this system made. With the oatmeal the men could work eighteen hours a day, when they had the greatest possible difficulty in working twelve hours a day before. He carried on that system for more than feur years, and whenever he wanted a large quantity of work done he invariably adopted the plan of not allowing the men to bring drink, for he know by experience that they could not work bo well with it. He liust qualify what he had said in ono way. If one wanted a tremondous push for a certain time—if on* wanted a cerlain number of men in a limited time to do a certain amount of work— ono must give them some drink. This did not alter in the slightest degree tho opinion he had already expressed. A great trial waa made three years ago. Twenty soldiers wore picked out from a regiment, and were divided into ganes of ! ten, and a largo prize waa offered to the gatif; which should do the greatost amount of work iv twelve houri. One «a»g was to hay« Hi muoh drink «a they liked ; the other was to have nothing but oatmeal gruel. They worked for a big prize, and those who had the drin& went away from tho oatmeal-gruelera at a terrible pace ; their pickaxesand shovels worked atdou'ble tho spoed of tho others, and they did double the work. That laßted for the first hour or two, but presently their streugth began to fail, tho oatmeal-gruellerß gradually crept up, and in the evening they had far surpassed the beer-clrinken, and rook the prize. Th» beer-drinkera were not satisfied, and tho next morning they came with a request to be allowed to turn oatmoal-gruellers themselves and to repeat the trial. The raqueat was granted, and tho two gangs were again put on trial, the conditions, howpver, being vevaraed. Thoio who had before had the beer now had oatmeal gruel, and those who had worked at the last trial on oatmeal gruel were supplied with beer. Exaotly the same result followed as before. Those who drank bper went straight away from the others for the first hour or two, but the oatmeal-gruoilers came in with a tremendous run in thu evening, and won the prize.

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