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ON THE RURAL ECONOVIV
mannan, Kinross and Fife, a considerable proportion of thefarm-servants are married men, living in cottages attached tothe farms, and receive of wages from L. 8 to L. 12 of money,a cow, six and a half bolls of oatmeal, land for flax and po-tatoes, with the carriage of a necessary quantity of fuel. Insome instances they have a free house; in which case, the mo-ney part of their wages is 30 s. or 40 s. a-year less; and whenthe servant is not allowed a cow, he receives about L. 5 or L. 6additional money, which is frequently the case in the neigh-bourhood of Edinburgh , where labourers are generally abun-dant, and pasture scarce. Unmarried male-servants have fromL. 10 to L. 14 a-yoar with victuals; women-servants havefrom I.. 4 to I.. 6 per annum.
In Perth, Forfar, and Kincardineshire , a considerable partof the servants are also married men, and their wages some-what similar to those in the above counties, namely, from L. 8to L. 12, a cow, six and a half bolls of meal, with ground forflax, potatoes, and the carriage of fuel; unmarried male-ser-vants have from L, 12 to L. 20 of yearly wages, with victuals.Upon some farms, where a number of unmarried servants areemployed, they live in what is provincially called a bothy ,that is to say, they have a room or cottage for themselves,where they prepare their victuals, eat and sleep. In lieu ofvictuals in the farmer’s house, they receive two pecks of oat-meal a week, with from 8 d. to 1 s. a piece for milk, or a cowamong three. This mode of keeping servants is peculiar tothe north-east Lowlands, and some parts of Perthshire; butthe practice appears to have nothing in it deserving of imita-tion, unless it can be proved, that it is for the interest, of so-ciety, to teach men to dispense with the most innocent grati-fications of a servile condition, and to lead a cheerless life.Women-servants, in these counties, have from L. 4 to L. 6of wages per annum. It is proper here to observe, that inthe Highlands of Perthshire, the price of labour is about afourth part less than in the lowland district.