Wairarapa Standard Published Tri-weekly, Price 1d. MONDAY, MARCH 22, 1886. Lord Tollemache's Small Farm System.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XIX, Issue 1810, 22 March 1886, Page 2

Wairarapa Standard Published Tri-weekly, Price Id. MONDAY, MARCH 22, 1886. Lord Tollemache's Small Farm System.

Wr, have received by the English Mail some detailed information with respect to the woiking and results ol Lord Tollemache’g cottage farms in Cheshire. A general description of this cottai’o farm experiment will no doubt prove of iutciest to our readers in this colony ai showing wlmt hag been done in England to benefit a certain numbei of farm laborers at a time when severe agricultural depression prevails, not only in that country, but also, more or less, all over the world, Lord Tollemaobe, ol Reckforton Castle, Cheshire, is an English landlord with considerable holdings. He belongs to the old Tory School, but is a sort of beneficial " Lord of , the Manor," who looks after the interests of Lis laborers and tries to give them a chance of making a comfortable living. Any attempt in this direction, when landlords, farmers and laborers in England have long j been crying out about the hard times and , the difficulty ol making a living, must have , been surrounded with difficulties. But Lord ( Tollemaohe was not to be discouraged. He , resolved, some years back, to establish a | p umber or cottage farms lor the laborer! ,

employed on his estate and by his largo tenant farmers. With this purpose ia view he built a number of.laboreis’ cottages. These cottages are mostly in pairs, and each stands upon half a rood of land. Each cottage contains a kitchen and living room fitted up with every convenience. Behind is a scullery and pantry ; there are three bedrooms, one downstairs and two upstairs. In the rear of the house is an outhcuse for a cow and calf; also a piggery. Adjacent to each cottage is A three acre croft of laud. The laborer, with his wife and family taking one of those cottage farms, gets the dwelling house, out buildings and the three acre croft at a rental of £lO a year. He requites to purchase his own cow as a condition of getting one of the cottage farms. Indeed, the primary object is to give the laborer the opportunity of being able to keep a cow, so that the cow may in turn help to keep him and his family. The experience of a few years in this cottage farm experiment, shows, that as an average, the laborer pays his entire- rent charge out of the profits of his farm, and has at the same time a supply of dairy produce and bacon for himself and family. Most of the cottage farmers make butter of their surplus milk ; though, singularly enough, the article produced is not so good as the delicate butter made by the Dutch and Danish small farmers. Some of the cottage farmers make cheese, a number of them combining their supply, of milk for that purpose. It must be remembered that those cottage farmers are employed at paid weekly labor, either on Lord Tollemacbe's estate, or by the large tenant farmers—the wages, on a yearly average, being from 16s to 17a a week ; but as there are certain other emoluments paid to the laborers •' in kiud,” the actual value o! their earnings is estimated at 20s a week. To this has to be added the profits of the cottage farm—which about pays the rent of £lO a year—and the earnings of the wife and children. This is no doubt avery pleasant picture, but it seems to us that Lord Tollemacbe’s " laborer-cottage farmers " are in an exceptionally favorable position, and infinitely better oil than the rank and file of the average agricultural laborer, who drudges all his life for wretched pay and is generally badly fed, clothed and housed. Lord Tollemache had some other special objects in view when establishing these cottage farms besides that of enabling each laborer to have a cow and the land to keep it on. He wished the cottage farms to afford the means of training the rising generation of laborers’ children to agricultural pursuits ; and also to produce a continuous supply of first class laborers for bis tenant farmers. It is now claimed, alter some years' trial.of the experiment, that these objects have been attained. In the first place, only the very best class of laborers were allowed to obtain a cottage farm, and now when a farm is vacant there are always a host of applicants for it, and usually the best man gets it. These “ laborer-cottage farmers ” are stated to be first class laborers, not to be excelled in any other part of England. The district is almost exclusively devoted to dairying, and the laborers therefore need to be smart in handling cattle—competent to treat them properly in sickness—and in fact able to so deal with their dumb charges as to obtain the highest results from them The tenant farmers on Lord Tollemache’s estate are men possessed of considerable capital, who cafry out dairy farming in a scientific style and with all the latest improvements in the shape of machinery and labor saving appliances. An intelligent writer who recently visited some of those farms thus describes them ;—" These farmhouses resemble hunting boxes, squire like home-steads-anything but the ancient Cheshire farmer’s home. Where (he manure heap once stood is now a beautiful grass plot, fit for tennis or other similar games. The house is fronted by a garden filled with flowers of every kind, and within it are the comforts, the elegancies and the refinements of St John’s Wood or other esthetic middle class tenements.” All this reads charmingly, but it is more important to note that as many as seventy cows are milked on a single farm; that in the dairy process, machinery spares the muscles, science tells the truth of temperatures, steam cleanses the utensils, and pumps convey the whey by underground conduits to the piggeries. The manufacture of the gigantic Cheshire cheese is carried on with a quietude and ease that ia delightful to witness. No worry, no wasteful bustling ; order, precision and exactitude prevail. But the question will be asked, Do those largo teuant farms pay their holders ? On this point, a reporter who visited the locality remarks ; “ Lord Tollemacbe’s tenants of large farms as well as his laboring cottage farmers, are not in arrears—no farms are to let—and if a vacancy occurs in the large farms it is sought after by scores of farmers, who wait for a chance to come on the ground. Good management, not patronage philanthropy, is the explanation of Lord Tollemacbe's success in dealing with his tenants and laboring cottagers." With respect to the condition of the laboring cottage farmers, the same writer remarks : " By the courtesy of Lord Tollemache I was permitted to visit his cottage farms, to question the laborers and their wives, to judge from reports and visable faots’how the experiments have ended. The results are io every respect most encouraging. The landlord is satisfied, the farmers are satisfied, the laborer is satisfied. While dread and perplexity pervade the shores, the happy dwellers upon Lord Tollemache's estate are at peace. Every large farm ia occupied, and in case of a vacancy there ere numerous applications. Every laborer’s cottage is tenanted, and the obtaining of one is the great object of those living outside. The contrast between these cottages and the ordinary dwelling house of the average English farm laborer is very striking.” There is much in all this which is eminently susgeslive. Hero iu this colony efforts are being made to place suitable settlers upon the Crown Lands by means of special settlements, the deferred payments scheme and the perpetual leasing system. All those plans are each excellent of their kind and will prove successful, if practical men, possessed of skill, industry aud thrift go upon onr lands. And in this colony it is not a case of paying £lO a year of rent for the use of a house aud three acres of land—but of acquiring the freehold of a fair sized farm of 100 acres and upwards at a low price and on terms of deferred payments In this colony no fine house is built for the small farmer, and he hag to “ rough it ” for a few years—sometimes in bush country—before he becomes the owner of his holding and is in a fair way of prosperity. The work of the colonial settlers is far harder and rougher than that of Lord Tollemache's cottage- farmers ; but then the former ultimately becomes an independent freeholder and a man with a competence of “ his very own,” while the latter at the end of many years would still bo only a common laborer at 16s a week, and the mere tenant of a three acre croft which he could be turned out of at any moment at the pleasure or whim of “ the lord of the coil.” Lord Tollemache’s laborers may be fairly well off, but after all they are mere “ serfs of the soil,” and have little hope of rising. The small farmer iu this colony can—if he possess pluck, grit, self denial aud economy—rise to the position of a prosperous and independent settler and freeholder.