On this page

• Text (2)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • Untitled
  • 

    SELF-SUPPORTING FABM OF THE SHEFFIELD UN...

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    While Domestic Affairs Remain In A State...

    Railway Board , in which it is shown that of fortyone bad accidents during the last official year , ending at Midsummer 1851 , onjy two , were realty accidental . The activity failing in politics is | # _gn in science . Eminent archaeologists have been _^ siting Newcastle and its neighbourhood , _inspecting antiquities , reading antiquities , _anjj Junchjng _, fri- h laudable assiduity . A new telescope , at Wandsworth , ha * made great progress towards placing the heavenly bodies as much within reach of the curious in

    London as if the said curious were in Parsaa stown ; which Lord Rosse has brought so near to the remote constellations . Mr . Hind reports the discovery of a new planet for our own splar system ; but a new planet is a drug to the newspaper-reading public . Discussions on the poison of a toad ' s skin , a _phenomenon now duly transferred from " vulgar error" to most select science , is expected to throw light on the nature of hydrophobia and other maladies produced by animal

    poisons . And the coming cholera is not less gravely discussed ; steadily making way as it is doing through Poland and Prussia , with terrible mortality . For the third time sanitary reformers are urging those who have charge of drainage , and water supply , and other sanitary labours , to prepare for the coming pestilence ; but in vain . The energy gets no further than discussion . Crowded streets , undrained districts , unsluiced drains , bad water , dead bodies amongst the living , are still

    waiting to prepare us for receiving the pestilence that follows the potato disease ; Commissioners of Sewers , Board of Health , and other public bodies , are still without power to remove nuisances , or to supply the means of health . _" Three mulls are a spin : " our public men must have a third visita tion of cholera before the } ' can arrive at a comprehension of the fact , that preventive measures are desirable , not only in speeches and pretended " measures , " but in reality and in working order .

    Ar00204

    Self-Supporting Fabm Of The Sheffield Un...

    SELF-SUPPORTING FABM OF THE SHEFFIELD UNION . We derive from the Sheffield Free Press tbe following account of a visit of inspection to the Union Farm , which took place on Thursday week . By invitation of the farm committee of thc Sheffield board of guardians , a number of gentlemen connected with the town and neighbourhood of Sheffield , as well as others from more distant places , accompanied the board of _guardians on a visit of inspection to the Sheffield union farm at Hollow Meadows , which is situated about six miles west of Sheffield , on the Sheffield and GIossop turnpike road . The object of the visit was to inspect the domestic arrangements , to take a survey of the growing crops and of the Held operations of the labourers , and at the same time to receive the farm committee's

    report . Ihe number of _gentlemen present on the occasion was about sixty . Amongst them were Viscount ( lodorich , M . P ., a member of the Poor-law Association ; the Kev . S . , J . Lyon , incumbent of Moorficlds , Sheffield ; Messrs . Groves , Saunders , Atkinson , Crowther , Rhodes , Potter , _Bussey , Crossland , and Sparrow , members of the Sheffield board of guardians ; Mr . W . F . Dixon , ex-member of the board ; Mr . _Wntkinson , the union clerk ; Mr . Rogers , the governor of tbe workhouse ; Messrs . Stead nnd ( Iresbiim , a deputation from tho Leeds board of guardians , accompanied by Mr . Reckwitb , clerk to the guardians ; Mr . Holmes ,

    Leeds ; Mr . Grabtree , Leeds ; Mr . Palmer , ex-mayor of Hull ; Mr . Charles Clarke , Manchester ; Mr . Samuel Mitchell , senior vice-chairman of tho _Fcclesall board of guardians ; Mr . James Willis Dixon , Mr . _Slepheu . Marl in ( merchant , Are ., Norfolk-street ) , Mr . G . H . Palmer , Mr . Francis Hoole , Mr . James Haywood , Mr . Skinner ( surgeon ) , Mr . 11 . 1 _' ayne , Mr . AllunKon ( surgeon ) , M . It . Schofield , Mr , Muncaster , Mr . JI . _Uawksloy , Mr . K . It . Schojiold , Mr . 1 < 2 . C . ilroudbent , Mi-. A Itooth , Mr . F . Millns , Mr . Palfreynmn , Mr . M'Turk , Mr . l <\ E , Watkinsou , Mr . J . Pryor , Mr .

    Patrick ( I ' ond-street ) , Mr . Hodgson ( Penistone ) , Mr . S . _Suunderson , jun ., Mr . Akoioyd , Mr . Palfreyman , Mr . JU ilner , Mr . Oak mh ( Victoria street ) , Mr . Howley ( Atteroliffit ) - Mr . Christopher Thompson , Mr . 6 . Thompson ( High-street ) , Mr . Fish ( Upporthorpo ) , Mr . John Wilson ( _Fargaty ) , Ike .. Ike . " After a lengthened interval wo are g lad to find the HhoJHcld union farm _u _^ iiin inviting public criticism . The _uxperionoo of ( b it * union in bygone years having very graphically whown tho need ol * a more wholesome unda more _Buccopafu ) lubour tuet thjw wm afforded by the _» ton « -

    Self-Supporting Fabm Of The Sheffield Un...

    heap , the oakum loom / and t _)& intolerable hand flourmill , we have frg _© the first organization of the Sheffield union farm bega anxious to seo it so worked out as to realize the _twofold object of providing a more salutary _instrument _ftg * lafeeur test , and of economizing tj > e poor- _, totes . We } _iave always had so much p & tH in the § Phen _* e g _* to belief © it _eap # Me of _accofliplisJdng that important _^ jd , and hence it h _& 8 been a souffle pf grief to us to _observe _ft _\ p course pf the experiment obstructed by personal jealousies and _parfar feuds . All such petty consideration * as these we are resolved to _exclude _fegm flew , ih order tt } _# t we may more plearly discern the progress of an undertaking which intimately concerns the interests not only of the Sheffield union but of the whole community .

    " The simple plan of a land labour test , we believe , has been approved by all who have canvassed the subject , and it is not until the question arises as to how far the principle shall be carried that any material difference of opinion arises . Upon that question , however , public opinion in Sheffield is very greatly divided , one party maintaining that the operations or the paupers at the Sheffield union farm ought to be restricted to clearing and reclaiming the wild moorland which stretches far and wide before them a dreary waste , while another class of favourers of _^ the land test would extend the principle a step further and keep a certain breadth of cleared land in cultivation . A majority of the present board of guardians , if not the whole , it appears , are of the latter class . And we cannot deny that

    with these limitations they have the best of the argument . " If the principle of the land-labour test is to be tried at all , the experiment ought to be made as fairly as circumstances will admit . Now , the mere clearing of land is defective , inasmuch as it affords suitable labour for only one class of persons—the able-bodied , and it necessitates an outlay in wages of superintendents , and other fixed charges , large enough for a more comprehensive system . It must be plain to every one who has thought a moment on the subject , that in the process of clearing there must always be some portion of the land ready for cropping before a sufficient breadth has been cleared to make it worth while to sub-lease it to a tenant of the union ; at the same time there must be a constant demand for food for the labourers

    on the union farm which that cleared land would yield , and which under ordinary management they might produce for themselves at a very cheap rate . Amongst the principal items of food at that establishment are milk and potatoes . The reclaimed moorland grows potatoes ' kindly , ' as it is termed , and it affords good pasturage for cows . It must require some strong reasons , then , to prove that it would not be right to put that machinery in motion , at least to the extent of making the union self-supporting in the two articles of diet just named . In a large union like this there are at all times in the ranks of the paupers numbers of persons unemployed who are capable of doing some simple , easy work on the cultivated portion of the farm , but who would be unfit for the rougher and heavier labour of ridding , draining , & c . And there are times and seasons when , if there wero no work but clearing , there would be no rosource for the pauper workers—nothing but dull and worse than unprofitable periods of idleness .

    " Until within a recent period the daily supplies of milk for tho workhouse farm wero purchased of a moorland farmer , resident several miles beyond the place of consumption , when there existed on the spot overy facility for producing milk at home . So with regard to potatoes . A neighbouring farmer is desirous at the present time of renting a portion of the cleared land on the union farm . Supposing iho land to be so disposed of , it would most probably be made to grow potatoes , and a portion of the crop would bo purchased for the sustentation of tho pauper labourers . Tho farmer would of course charge a profit upon the produce so sold , that produce having been raised by tho agency of independent labour . Supposing—which is a fact—that tho guardians of the poor could have grown thoso potatoes on their own land , with labour otherwise unproductive , it surely would require no legerdemain on thoir part to keep the land in their own hands and raise tho food required for daily consumption at a cheaper rato than their tenant could afford to soil it to them : and tho

    same argument applies with equal forco to tho item of milk . Well , the _common-sonse course is that which tho present guardians aro desirous to pursue . They must bo conscious , also , that collaterally it puts into their hands a more powerful and flexible instrument for working tho land labour test , which was one of tho primary objects aimed at by tho projectors of tho union farm . Resides enabling them to effect the grand _desideratum of making pauper labour reproductive , they aro enabled to apply tho farm tost to almost every class of applicants for relief . This gauge of pauper character has been made to work with tho utmost nicety . ' A sturdy applicant for relief , who is known to bo always ready to eat the parish loaf without compunction , is told that ho may go and work at

    the farm , and his wages shall bo paid to him at the close of each day at Sheffield . His only aim when ho asked for relief was to bo maintained without t } io pain of working for his bread at somo independent labour .- a life of slothful ease in the workhouse would havo suited him , at least for a season ; but n toiling walk of twelve miles to perform a not very light daily task , and that for ix bare subsistence , is a state of things thai the sturd y lazy-back cannot put up with on any account . It were infinitely easier to give up the idea ot luxurious idleness at the public cost and earn a livelihood like an honest man . Bo lie thinks , and

    so ho acts . Rut supposing a man so tested wero to endure the ordeal for a moderate length of timo , it would bo a fair presumption that he was willing to work for bis living , but was unable for a season to obtain employment . Hi that ease tho _nerow would bo slackened—tho weight of the burden would be ho adjusted tbat while no inducement was held out to remain at tho pauper farm a Bingle day longer than wus necessary , tboro should yet bo such a relaxation of discipline as would admit of moderate comfort . In this way tho union farm has been and still is an invaluable means of protection to tho honest ratepayers against tho indolent and slothful . It affords a _lop t im-

    Self-Supporting Fabm Of The Sheffield Un...

    _measurably mow iu # _cessAd than any other that l _... been tngi , and _flWrapver it contains within itselfrtf e _^ er meats of _self _^ m _^ instead of entailing a _positive _?*" beyond the _u _& iUmWee of those to _VhomTf 7 loss pliU . Taking M * _Tiew pf the farm laW _^ _£ ap _" would not _wi _^ iiiglv stand in the way of _if « _^ _- working , but we stall be at all times ready to - _^ in _clearing awfty any misapprehensions or _tvrphT _*** which may e _* _ist a * to its efficiency . We know + _^„< . _5 es Sheffield _espariroimt is watched by _philaXlSf the _politjeflj _l _^ _Wists in all parts _ofih _eZpW _£ _* account it assumes a xopre than local importance n only wish is that it should have fair play , and not he m ! _f a sacrifice to factious opposition . Tnat the scheme S 5 be marred as much by ill directed zeal as by inveterat is obviousllainBut that is

    hostility y p . not to the S Boards of guardians are not selected b y their fellow t payers because of their Utopian idealities or inaptitud _^ f business . In a general way they are men of good _practical common sense : and upon the exercise of & ose quahS must depend the successful working of this andT kindred scheme . We are glad to observe on the _nartXf the present board a sincere desire to work the union farm for the benefit of all concerned , and for the good of th community at large . Economy is evidentl y their _leading principle : no expensive machinery or utensils—no high farming in any sense—but everything conducted as _faraa possible in the way in which , men would proceed on their own individual account . Their proceedings thus far have inspired them with the hope , that in the course of another season the farm will make some returns for the outlnv

    which the incipient processes necessitated , and that the reproduction will thenceforward be progressive . "While they diminish the cost of maintenance at the farm by home-prodnction , they will persevere with the reclamation of the waste , always keeping steadily in view the advantage which will ultimately accrue to the union from the balance which will arise from the rental at which they will let the reclaimed land , as compared with the nominal rent which they have to pay to the original lessor . We are glad to learn that this source of income is likely to commence as early as next year .

    " But , after all , the great question for the ratepayers ia purely a question of pounds , shillings , and pence , and we know of no means of satisfactorily elucidating that point except by the aid of figures . This brings us at once to the report of the farm committee of the board of guardians , which professes to supply the necessary arithmetical index . This document is greatly too long for us to copy into our columns : we must therefore be content to notice its more salient features . A great portion of it is anticipated b y the foregoing remarks , which touch upon topics which fairly come within the scope

    of"THE BEPOttT . " The committee express regret , at the outset of the report , ' that they are prevented from presenting the accounts in a form so satisfactory to themselves as they could wish , ' for the reason that a previous board had taken thc control of the farm affairs entirely out of the hands of the union clerk . The report goes into various details of alleged mismanagement under their predecessors , and which tho committee adduce as a reason for their inability ' to present the affairs of the farm in a more intelligible form , ' and to exhibit a yearly debtor and creditor account . But , says tho report , ' proceeding in the best way the committee are able , they find the expenditure for manure , & c ., up to September , 1850 , to have been 210 ? ., and from thence to September , 1851 ( including 42 ? . for threo years ' rent ) , 112 ? . ; total expenditure , 312 ? . The receipts for farm produce and agistment for the years 1840-60-1 , aro

    estimated at 350 ? ., leaving a balance of 37 ? . odd in favour of the manure , seed , and rent account . The wages of tho superintendent of labour and the rations of himself and wife are set down at 2201 . for threo years , from whieh deducting tho 37 ? . profit , there is a loss of 182 ? . odd , or 0 _^ . a-yoar , attendant upon tho working of tho labour tes .. Tho committee leave the publio to judge whether any other labour test could have been worked at a less cost The committee aro satisfied that tho loss has bocn constantly diminishing , though tho accounts are not in such a state a * to demonstrate the fact . They then invito attention to the appearance of tho crops in support of the _following estimate set upon this year ' s produce by the superintendent of labour .- —' The bay in stack , nine tons , anu worth of eddish ; wheat growing , ten loads per acre ; _oaw , seven quarters por acre : potatoes , 201 . por acre ; t » rn , ? ' Value BI . 5 s . ; oat straw , 1 _J ton per aero ; wheat ditto , _H ditto . Rut the committeeto guard againBt _disappoint

    , ment , submit the following reduced statement : — Vr ,-Manure-, seed , and rent account for tho year onding _poptember , 1853 : cost of manure and seed from Scvtewver _, 1851 , to March , 1852 , 42 ? . ; cost of carting manure , ju * . , ditto of workhouso manure , 81 . ; ront , IU . ; total , _»« _" _•; deduct lime aa useless for the present crop , WI . ; total t of manuro , seed , and rent , 181 . Cr .: Estimate o " » quantity and value of tho crops for the year ending |» 8 i tons of hay at 85 s . per ton , 3111 . ; 7 acres ot oats , w quarters to fhe acre , at 1 R « . per quarter , 41 ? . ; l wnB t oatBtraw , 15 ? . ; 2 ) , _ucres of wheat , 20 bushels per acr « , 5 * . por bushel , 14 ? . ; 4 tons wheat straw , at 2 ( 1 * ., « " ' . * acres potatoes , at 10 ? . por aero , 42 ? . 1 B » . ; turnips on w ground , 41 . 10 s . ; profit on cow , 31 . ; ag istment , bl . i "' ' 11 ( 7 ? . ' Tho _tareaame account is followod by this oxP _'"

    tory remark : — ' Ry this it is shown that the nofl < u «» pondituro for manure , seed , and rent , for _^ l ° P [ cson .., _7 fl 0 _» m 78 ? . 10 * ., nnd tho _estimoto of tho value of fbo _" ° K the land , 167 ? ., leaving a balanco in _& vour ot u _&* account of 88 ? . 10 * . and , after deducting 7 J '; _*»• * J ( , perintendenco of labour , the sum of 16 ? . 4 « . ' ntcd account for 1861-2 is taken at 8 «? . a-year : thw _w _<« " _fc for by charging 2 _W . 14 * . to tho manure and . _¦« _«<}« _£ tUo and allowing 2 s . ( id . a-wcok for carting provisions »* labourers at tho farm . _furniture , " Tho stock account ( tho expenditure for bo ( is , n _•* _^ farming _implemonte , & , _« . ) up to 1850 »» 4 . 11 ? . . ; tor * { 221 . ; total , 433 / . ; subject to depreciation m vftiuv ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 28, 1852, page 2, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_28081852/page/2/