Genre:

Essay

Subjects:

Agriculture, Darwinism, Nomenclature, Animal Behaviour, Morality, Sex

    Observes that 'in the long and weary "struggle for existence" there are many trials and difficulties common' to both English and Scottish farm labourers (614). Describes the '"Feeing Markets", or "Hiring Fairs"' common to agricultural districts in Scotland, and claims that 'nothing can be more calculated to lower the moral position of the agricultural labourer than these degrading exhibitions', where 'the labourers who thus exhibit themselves, like oxen, are judged like oxen by their physical appearance only. The long day done, the thoughtless lads and lasses compensate themselves for the tedium of the morning by evening orgies, which many of the women, at least, may have life-long cause to regret' (619–20).