Agricultural History Review, Volume 55 Part 2 (2007), p. 321

This study is an outgrowth of Heather Holmes’ wider research programme focussing on the history of Irish migratory potato workers in Scotland, who formed the backbone of the seasonal agricultural workforce in many parts of the country until after the Second World War. It complements her more extended analysis of potato workers in the Lothians, published as series of articles and in her fine monograph ‘As good as a holiday’. Potato harvesting in the Lothians from 1870 to the present (2000). In contrast to that expansive study, this enterprise is narrower in scope, with a different geographic focus. It documents the experiences of Ayrshire workers – who have tended to be at the margins of most narratives of the migratory labour force – and extends the analysis of their work in the potato fields beyond the Second World War. A scholarly apparatus is evident in the study’s 884 endnotes (which are not, curiously, structured by chapter); readers seeking more sustained historiographical, theoretical and methodological discussions (particularly critical evaluations of reports, printed and oral, that are key sources for this study) are best advised to consult Holmes’ other monograph. In this study they will find rich detail of the rhythm of the Ayrshire harvest. Indeed, the great merit of this slim book is the window it offers onto the daily work of the potato workers over a hundred years, as well as the insight it provides into the commercial, agricultural and legal regimes which governed their work in the fields. Drawing on a range of evidence, it encompasses analyses of the age- and sexual profile of the workforce, the (changing) structure of the labour market, and critical discussions of the relatively slow adoption of harvesting technology. On this last point Holmes’ work makes a valuable contribution to the wider literature on labour systems and the dissemination and adoption of agricultural technology. Evidently the availability of a low-cost, flexible supply of Irish seasonal labour served to extend the period of manual harvesting in Ayrshire longer than in other potato-growing districts of Britain (pp.69–70). Readers seeking details on the experience of these workers from the Irish side of the migration process (beyond the relatively short discussion here, drawn from parliamentary reports whose empirical accuracy Holmes and others have wisely qualified), would benefit from reading this study alongside Anne O’Dowd’s Spalpeens and tattie hokers. History and folklore of the Irish migratory agricultural worker in Ire land and Britain (Irish Academic Press, 1991). It details complex household labour strategies which embraced a range of activities, including migratory labour to Britain. Holmes acknowledges the paucity of sources available to reconstruct the volume of seasonal traffic across the Irish Sea, as well to document the early development of large-scale potato farming in Ayrshire, which centred on the early ‘Epicure’ variety. She is precise in her delineation of the commercial structures which underpinned the industry until the 1960s, and in discussing systems of labour recruitment that proved resilient over many decades. Dimensions of this study which merit further analysis include the ethnic division of labour on the potato farms, especially in relation to new technologies and systems of authority in the potato field (mentioned briefly on p.61), as well as a sustained examination of the role that the Second World War played in reorganizing (or perhaps maintaining) pre-war commercial and labour structures. Evidently, in the composition of the workforce, and in the systems of harvesting potatoes, the war induced some significant changes; but the curious persistence of this workforce through the following two decades also raises intriguing questions about the extent to which the conflict disrupted the patterns of seasonal migration and systems of labour. This study complements Holmes’ extensive examination of the Lothian workforce. It surveys a broad range of features of work in the south-west Lowlands, some of which were distinctive and linked to the unique rhythm of the early harvest, while others, such as the protracted efforts to establish legal oversight over accommodation, were broadly similar to experiences in the Lothians. It will no doubt lead many interested readers to Holmes’ other studies, in which they will find comprehensive documentation and a valuable historiography of this much-understudied workforce in Scottish agriculture.