Contributions to the Agricultural Statistics of the Eastern Counties Author(s): Joseph Fletcher Source: Journal of the Statistical Society of London, Vol. 6, No. 2 (May, 1843), pp. 130-133 Published by: Wiley for the Royal Statistical Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2337868 . Accessed: 17/05/2014 14:45 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . Wiley and Royal Statistical Society are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of the Statistical Society of London. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 195.78.108.114 on Sat, 17 May 2014 14:45:55 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
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Contributions to the Agricultural Statistics of the Eastern CountiesAuthor(s): Joseph FletcherSource: Journal of the Statistical Society of London, Vol. 6, No. 2 (May, 1843), pp. 130-133Published by: Wiley for the Royal Statistical SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2337868 .
Accessed: 17/05/2014 14:45
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
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In the dame schools the Church Catechism is taught to all the children, and Watts's Catechism, in addition, to the children of Dissenters.
The Church Sunday School has 345 on its books, and the average attendance is 240. There are 15 voluntary teachers; nearly all the children attend some day school. An adult school has also recently been established under the superintendence of the officiating clergyman, for the instruction of persons of both sexes in reading and writing, and for improvement in scriptural knowledge. It originated with the fe- males, who were incited by the proficiency made by their daughters in the schools, particularly in writingg and has led to class meetinigs twice a week. The number attending is 30, and a desire to avail themselves of this mode of supplying the want of an early education, is rapidly extending among the labouring classes.
There are three Sunday schools attached to Wesleyan, Independent, and Baptist chapels, with 400 children on their books, few of whom have any other elementary instruction than these schools afford. The average attendance is 280.
The New Brentford Boys' National School, established in 1815, is sup- ported by subscription. The school house is capable of containing 200 boys, but the attendance seldom exceeds 50. Sixteen of the boys are clothed from the funds of the school.
It appears that the children receiving daily instruction in the parishes of Greenford, Hanwell, Acton, Ealing, anid Old aind New Brentford are, to the whole population, in the ratio of one-eighth.
It is considered right to abstain fromi entering into any details respect- ing the efficiency of these schools; but it was obvious that with very limited exceptions, they were not such as were calculated to satisfy those who would wish to see the education of the labouring classes effectively coinducted. Four of the masters and mistresses professed to have beeni regularly trained, two to have adopted the business of teachP ing from an early age. The master of the British and Foreign school appeared well qualified for his duties, and was regularly trained. Of the dame schools, 11 are kept by poor widows, who derive their sole sub- sistence from them. One of these appeared to be in a state of extreme poverty, and solicited charity; eight are kept by persons whose husbands are living. Two of the common day schools are kept by reduced trades- men, one by a mechanic, and three by men who had been employed as labourers or servants; one of these solicited charity. Four of the masters of the middle day schools have been employed in mercantile situations, and three have been engaged in teaching from an early age. Two of the mistresses of the infant schools have been regularlv trained, and one obtained her knowledge of the art of infant tuition by attending schools in Lonidon.
Contributions to the Agricultural Statistics of the Eastern Counties. By JOSEPH FLETCHER, Esq., Hon. Sec.
[Read before the Statistical Society of London, 20th March, 1843.]
THE present anxiety to obtain some insight into agricultural statistics has prompted me to submit to the Society, in connexion with the pre- ceding paper, the two following tables.
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1. -Relative Extent sown, and estimated Produce per Acre, of Wheat and Barley in 1838, as compared with the two preceding years, 1837 and 1836, in T'wenty-nine different localities in the County of Norfolk, em- bracing every variety of its Soils. *** The coomb is equivalent to 4 bushels. or half a quarter, Imperial measure.
Prevailing Wheat. Barley. Quality of
Land, Acrea Acres Neighbourhood. as described in Coombs per Acre. in Coomb3 per Acre.
bv the 1,000 1,000 Agricult ural under at 138 1836-? under 1838 1836-7 Survey. Wheat. arley.
* The rest of the arable surface is (with a few oats for home consumption) chiefly utnder turnips and artificial grasses, the latter fed or mown. There is scarcely any ipland meadow, andI sheep are more exclusively than ever the feeding stock.
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II.-Wages of Agricultural Labour in the Winter of 1838, in the South- Eastern Counties of England, compared with the Wages ordinarily paid in Winter.
Wages ordinarily Counties. Wages paid in the Winter of 1838. paid in the
Winter time.
Bedford . . . 78., 8.., and some few 1Os. . . 78., 88., or 9s. Buckingham. . 98., 1 08., and some few 12s. .9. Camb)ridge . . 11., 12s., and some few 13.. 6d. . 9s and 108. Essex. . . . 11s. and 12s.. . . . . . . . 108. Hertford. . . 9.., 10.., and 11s., with some few 12s. 9s. and 1Os. Huntingdun . . 10s. and 118. a . . . . . . . 9s. and 108. Kent . . . . 12s. and 13s. 6d., with some few 15s . 108. and 128. Leicester. . . 10s., 118., and 12.., with some few 14s. 9s., 10s., and 11#. Norfolk .. 8 8., 9s., 10.., which is the most common, 8s., 9S., and 10s. and 12s., which few are paying . . . Northampton . 10s., 11 s., and 12s. . . . . . . . 8s., 9s., and 10s. Oxford . . Sometimes 8s., but generally 98. and 10s., 8.. and 98. with some few 12s. . ..... Rutland .10s., with some few 12s. . . . . . 9s. Suffolk ( 8.., 9.., and 10s., which is the most com- 9 mon, and 12s., which few are paying ., 9.., and 10J. Stirrey . * * 12s. and 13s. 6d. . . . . . . . I Os. Sussex . . . 9s. and 10s., with some few 11s. and 12s.. 9s. and 10s. Warwick. . . 108., 11s., and 12s., with some few 14s. . 9,., 10,., and 11J.
The first of these tables describes the relative extent and the produce per acre of the grain crops throughout the county of Norfolk, in 1838, as compared with the two preceding years, when the harvests were much more abundant. It is compiled from returns made to Sir William Foster, Bart., by owners and occupiers at the several places mentioned, and kindly communicated to the writer. The deficiency in the crops of 1838 was greater in every other part of the kingdom than in Norfolk, where, however, the produce is seen to have been between one-fourth and onie-fifth less of wheat than in the two preceding years.
The second table is the result of careful inquiries of my own in the winter of 1838. It shows that the preceding deficient harvest, and the consequent rise of prices, caused at least a temporary increase in the money wages of the agricultural labourers of this part of the kingdom, contrary to what would have been anticipated by any one placing a reliance upon the principles of the best economists, unqualified by any allowance for disturbing causes or unreduced phenomena. The wages here stated are those given for day labouir at the dead time of the year, when no extra earnings were being generally made. And the customs in this part of the kingdom as to trifling extra allowances to the farm labourers do not vary so much as to explain the difference in the amount of weekly wages between one county and another, which this table exhibits. For comparison between one place and another, its data, indeed, may be as safely relied upon, as for comparison between one time and another, notwithstanding that they have no pretensions to form the basis of an accurate estimate of the total yearly earnings of the labourers and their families.
Many cases may be assigned for the variations here shown. Un- d.oubtedly many causes utnite to produce them. Some of these are ob- vious, otherg more remote. Being unable, however, to adduce statistical
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evidence to prove the amount of influence attributable to each, I have contented myself with submitting these documents to notice. And if they move the curiosity of others to make further investigations, my highest purpose will be accomplished.
An Attenmpt to determine the In.fluence of the Seasons and Weather on Sickness and Mortality. By WILLlAM AUGUSTUS Guy, M. B. Cantab. Professor of Forensic Medicine, King's College, London, and Physician to King's College Hospital.
THE present enquiry was suggested by a striking coincidence observed in the recently published Report of the King's College Hospital for 1842, between the prevalence of sickness in the several seasons and the temperature. This led to an examination of the bills of mortality for the same year, in which a similar coincidence was observable between the temperature and the numnber of deaths in the several seasons.
A desire to ascertain whether these were mere coincidences, or the general rule of sickness and mortality, prompted an examination of the records of sickness and mortality in past years; and the results of this examination are embodied in the present communication.
This enquiry, then, consists of two parts. 1. As to the relation subsisting between the seasons anid weather, and the amount of sickness and mortality, during the year 1842; and 2. A comparison of the results obtained for 1842 with those of former years.
The facts which form the basis of the first part of the enquiry are the Registrar-general's tables of mortality for the metropolis, for the year 1842, and the cases registered in the out-patient books of the Kitng's College Hospital for the same year. The standard of comparison employed is the Meteorological T'able, deduced from observations made at the apartments of the Royal Society, and appended to the Registrar-general's Report already mentioned.
It is necessary to premise that the King's College Hospital is situate in the western part of the central district of the metropolis, in the midst of the parishes of St. Clement's Danes, St. Giles in the Fields, St. Andrew's Holborn, and St. George's Bloomsbury; that in this central district nearly 375,000 persons occupy a space of less than three square miles; whilst in the eastern districts, about the same number of per- sons are comprised within little less than nine square miles. Hence the central districts are nearly three times as populous as any other district in London, and six times as populous as the northern, the southern, or the western districts. In consequence of the large population by which the hospital is surrounded, the applicationis for relief, which, from its first establishment, were very niumerous, have been coiltinually in- creasing, and amounted in the year 1842 to upwards of 12,000 cases, exclusive of casualties. This large number may be fairly presumed to represent the sickness of the more central parts of the metropolis.
In conisequence of the registration of iin-patients having been incom- plete during the early part of the year 1842, the medical and surgical out-patients alone are made use of for the present enquiry; and as'these are the class of patients who suffer from the diseases most influenced by the seasonis and weather, they will form a fair representative of the prevalence of sickness, as contradistinguished from more severe disease? which tend to a mortal issue. The out-patients have amounted, durinE
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