Hentland lies in South-West Herefordshire which is where the Ryelands breed of sheep originated. In the immediate area there is little evidence of anything but arable farming - growing crops, Although Thomas Davis of Pengethley had 380 sheep in 1690.
Almost the entire population of the parish would have been engaged in agriculture from the very earliest periods. The only exceptions being the clergy.
18th century
John Clarke's General View of the Agriculture of the County of Hereford published in 1794, reported agricultural wages at the time.
LABOURERS WAGES
| Men hired by the year | from six to nine guineas |
| Boys hired by the year | from two to three guineas |
| Women hired by the year | from three to four ditto |
The time of hiring was in May.
GRAIN IS THRESHED
Wheat for three pence halfpenny per bushel, of ten gallons. Barley, pease, and beans three half-pence, ditto ditto Also three quarts of drink per day to each man.DAY LABOURERS
Day labourers always formed part of the workforce
Wages were Six shillings a week in summer, and a gallon of drink to each man. and five shillings a week in winter, with three quarts of drink
In the harvest, wages were fourteen pence a day, with meat and drink.
Women were paid six-pence a day, with two quarts of drink, all the year except in harvest, when they also have meat.
Time of working. In harvest, as early and late as they can see; in winter from light to dark; and in summer from six to six.
There never was enough labour in time of harvest. "The grain is cut by persons who come from the mountainous parts of Wales annually for that purpose, mostly from Cardiganshire. A foreman generally agrees for a whole farm at a stated price per acre, who finds the requisite number of hands to fulfill his contract, at whatever price he can.
19th century
Wages seem to have risen by 1805 when John Duncumb published another General View of the Agriculture of the County of Hereford
19th century Herefordshire reaping
In fact an agricultural labourer with a wife and three or four children, who worked for a six-day week of twelve or more hours, could not earn enough to feed himself and his family. Such men were obliged to go to the parish for support.
Agriculture was changinging rapidly and fewer workers were required. For wheat, yields per acre doubled between 1700 and 1900.
In every decade after the 1830s, emigration from Britain greatly exceeded immigration. Between 1815 and 1914, approximately ten million people emigrated from Britain. Almost all the emigration was from rural areas.
In the first half of the 19th century many of the emigrants were farmers and agricultural labourers. With them went the skilled workmen who provided the support services of agricultural communities - skilled artisans and craftsmen. At this stage it tended to be family groups who migrated. Later in the century the pattern began to change and single males, both agricultural and urban workers increased in number.
Readers of the Ross Gazette were informed in 1875 that "the question of the export of frozen meat is seriously occupying public attention in the Australian colonies". An official statement just issued shows that there are 6,000,000 sheep and 3,000,000 head of cattle in Queensland. "This, after deducting the home consumption of meat, admits of • weekly exportation of 2000 tons, provided the necessary shipping facilities were available. Refrigerating works are to be immediately erected.
The world was changing. Men from rural areas were still providing food for the English consumer, but they were doing it on the other side of the world.
Some men may have been tempted by adverts placed in the Hereford Journal by the South Australian Agency - "EMIGRATION. AGRICULTURAL and other MARRIED LABOURERS may obtain a free passage to SOUTH AUSTRALIA, a Colony where there are no Convicts, on terms of increased facility to those having large Families."
In 1875 Queensland needed workers. Adverts in the Ross Gazette offered free passage for female domestic servants of good character, with wages of £25 to £50 per year all found. And also to agricultural laboureres - wages, £30 to £50 year, with board and lodging.
But there certainly were convicts in other parts of Australia. In January 1843. William Wood, aged 67, and his two sons, Timothy, aged 20, and George, aged 18, were transported (William and Timothy for 15 years each and George for ten) for stealing a sheep, the property of Mr. John Parsons, butcher, of Hentland. Mr. Parsons deposed that his sheep were safe in a field called the Red Rail, six o'clock in the evening of the 10th December; about half-past nine next morning he went again to the field, and found the skin of one of his sheep.
Sheep stealing continued. In July 1847 James Cadogan, alias Duggan, was sentenced to ten months with hard labour for having stolen one ewe sheep, property of Mrs Sarah Loveridge, widow of Hentland. George Cutter, shepherd to Mrs. Loveridge, had counted the sheep at eight o'clock on the night of the 8th of May, and found their number to be right, viz. 25; he visited the flock again at five o'clock on the following morning, and then found that there was one missing, the number having been reduced to 24.
Sarah Loveridge was the widow of James, a farmer, who had been still living at the time of the 1841 census