OF SCOTLAKD.

237

SECT. II.

OF LABOURERS BY THE DAY OR THE PIECE.

Next to hired farm-servants, labourers employed in all theincidental, or by-jobs upon a farm, are the most valuableto the arable farmer, as without a sufficient supply of suchhands, it is utterly impossible for him to carry on the va-rious operations connected with an accurate system of agri-culture, either in a perfect manner, or at the cheapest rate.It is evident indeed, that the fanner, who depends entirelyupon his regular farm-servants, whose chief employment isworking horses, must either allow many necessary jobs, thatdaily occur, to lie over, or if these are regularly performed bythe ploughman, the horses must often be completely idle.Wherever agriculture, therefore, is carried on in any thinglike a perfect system, it is always a matter of essential im-portance, to have at command, a sufficient number of thisclass of assistants.

Accordingly, along all the eastern coast of the kingdom,as well as in those midland counties where agriculture formsthe principal business of the inhabitants, there is always aconstant and regular demand for labourers; and although, nodoubt, from the greater degree of fertility of the southerndistricts, a greater number must be employed, than what maybe found in more northern counties, yet throughout thewhole, the supply is in general equal to the demand. Uponevery farm of considerable extent, therefore, several cottagesattached to the farm are occupied by people of that charac-ter, who are sometimes hired by the year, but more common-ly by the day, and are employed in all the by-jobs upon thefarm ; such as working at the threshing-mill, filling and