Communal Barrel or Ration There was a time when in most parts of the West of England a ration of cider was given farm labourers as a matter of course. It was rough stuff, often as acid as vinegar, but satisfying to those engaged on hard work in the summer. It was strong, too, containing anything up to 8 or 9 per cent. of alcohol, unless the fa mer who supplied it to his men had the w dom to water it down; and the alcohol was new and raw. There is something about this raw, dry cider, which has been allowed to ferment right down that, taken to excess, brings out tempers and language more than anything else, This may be unjust to the drink, because its influence is not apparent until the epd of a long hard day, when men would be more likely to succumb to any form of intoxicating liquor.
One seldom sees nowadays those diminutive casks in which the men used to carry their cider to work, slung over their shoulders. Yet many farm hands are still given their allowance, and it may well be asked whether it is a sound practice in these days of wages, aboards and minimum wages, Actually, when the farmer has the orchards it costs him little; and a moderate cider allowance does no harm. The farmer likes to be in the position to offer a guest a drink of his own brewing, and he finds that, when it is a question of getting extra labour quickly in a race against the weather at hay, harvest, or threshing time, the fact that it is known that cider will be forthcoming makes all the difference.
It is not suggested that cider should be given as, or in lieu of, wages; for that is ill em! To put the point in a different way; if neighbours give their men cider the farmer who does not, will find it difficult to get those urgently needed extra bands. The best plan of all would be for farmers to agree among themselves to do the same thing, and to stick to it. But that is asking a lot of a farmer's nature. In time some such arrangement is bound to be made, since in many parts of the country those small orchards, nestling near the homestead which supplied the household cider, are falling down and are not being replaced; and already some farmers are compelled by competition in the labour market to buy the cider which they are unable to make for themselves. The privilege of the employees then becomes an expensive imposition on the employer.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.