owing to the labourers not being able to make use of them. At that time drilling was expert work, and men went from farm to farm on piece-work rates. Turnips were drilled by means of the Northumberland or Scotch turnip drill. Horse-hoes were used for turning a furrow from rows of peas, &c., previous to their being moulded up by a double mould-board. Thrashing mills were worked by oxen and water power, all hand labour having been discarded. Chaff cutters were of one, two, and three blades. Wagons were lighter in build than in other counties, and the wheels wider apart, some being 5 ft. 6 in. In coming down hills one wheel was locked, and there was always a special thickened place in the tyre about 1� in. thick on which the wheel slid. For sowing small seeds there was a sowing machine divided into divisions of 6� in. apart, the perforations being in plates of tin and copper. Revolving circular brushes forced the seed through the holes. In about 1810 the Norfolk system of ploughing with two horses abreast was introduced, and harrowing was frequently performed with three horses abreast. For rolling, one to four horses were used.

Dorset has enjoyed a reputation for a century past for neat hedges. They consist chiefly of thorn, but sometimes of hazel, maple, and privet. The usual method is to chop away superfluous wood and to lay the top branches down, cutting the wood in such a way that it will grow again. No dead wood is used, and by this method, by the time the hedge requires re-trimming new wood has grown sufficiently to do this. The banks are built up almost perpendicularly.

If the lot of the farmer is not a prosperous one, it is pleasant to record that the lot of the farm labourer has greatly improved. The employment of women in the fields has almost entirely disappeared - a matter for congratulation, if only on humanitarian grounds. The cottages, generally speaking, are in good repair. Those of a modern type consist of one or two living rooms and scullery, with sometimes as many as three bedrooms. A great advance has been made since 1842, when it was recorded that a family of eleven persons, total earnings 16s. 6d. per week, lived in a cottage of only two rooms. At that time, too, it is recorded that a family of twenty-nine persons lived in one cottage. In 1842 female labour in the fields was common, and boys started work at six or seven years of age. In 1869 the guardians passed a by-law prohibiting the employment of boys under ten years of age. At this time women were employed picking up stones, working at hay and corn harvests, planting, digging and earthing potatoes, attending to the threshing machines, winnowing corn, dairying, and sometimes even leading horses at the plough. It is worth while recording, too, that in 1834 six Dorset labourers were tried and sentenced to transportation to Australia for seven years for the heinous crime of forming a trade union. Disgusted with the low wage and the generally low conditions of life, they formed a union for the amelioration of the labourer's life. The union was to be kept secret, but a report of it leaked-out, with .the results mentioned above. Thus ended one of the pioneer strikes of trade-unionism in this country, to the glorification of the men who subsequently became known as the ` Dorset martyrs.'

The passing of the Poor Law in 1849 was responsible for the change in the rate of labourers' pay. Prior to that time the outdoor relief induced the farmer to pay on the lowest scale he could, knowing full well that the parish would come to the aid of the poor labourer. Up to that time a labourer's wages were as low as 6s. a week, and rarely higher than 10s., with no special advantages. Out of this he frequently had to pay 1s. or 1s. 6d. a week rent. Now, the wages are very seldom lower than 11s., and then only for a single man practically unskilled. The general wage varies from its. to as high even as 20s. and 22s. a week, and in addition the labourer gets sometimes a cottage, and invariably coal and wood, which is carted free, and a plot of land on which to grow kitchen produce. He is usually allowed to keep a pig, though in some instances this has been refused, the farmer having cause to suspect that his own feeding stuffs were laid under contribution for the benefit of the labourer's pig. These wages do not, of course, include the extra allowances at harvest time.

Farm buildings have also greatly improved, though the low rents make the landlord reluctant to expend money in erecting new buildings or repairing old ones. Too often attention has not been paid sufficiently to convenience, the buildings in some cases being in a position which renders excessive carting necessary.

This article would not be complete without reference being made to the many excellent farmers' clubs now in existence in Dorset. These number six : the Blandford, Winfrith, Milborne St. Andrew, Gillingham, Shaftesbury, and Wareham and Isle of Purbeck. All these clubs send a representative to the Central Chamber of Agriculture, and, in addition, are centralized under the Dorset Joint Agricultural Committee. With the exception of the Wareham Club, all these clubs date back many years. The Blandford Club is the oldest, the date of its inception being 1848 ; but it is not many years the senior of the Milborne St. Andrew Farmers' Club and the Winfrith Farmers' Club, both of which were instituted in 1856. These clubs have a total membership of about a thousand, of which the Blandford Club has the largest share with a membership list of 273. With the exception of the newly-formed Wareham Club, all the other clubs have a

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