Tlie Country Gentlemaiis Magazine 



hay-time. The reaping of wheat was let at from 

 I OS. to 14s. per acre, according, as it may be 

 presumed, to the state of the labour-market ; 

 and mowing was done at a cost of from 5 s. to 

 7s. per acre. Of course in these daysof reaping 

 and mowing machmes sucli work is not 

 wanted. Women's wages ran from 5s. to 6s. 

 per week ; and children, under sixteen years 

 of age, made from 2 s. 6d. to 7 s. 



There was a wide divergence in the weekly 

 wages of men in Kent — from 8s. 8d. in the 

 Faversham district, to 15s. in Romney Marsh. 

 The quantity of beer allowed was liberal 

 enough during harvest-time, viz., a whole 

 gallon, and in hay-time half the allowance 

 was granted. Women and boys received 

 about half the quantity of liquor, which was 

 surely more than quant U7n sufficit. The wages 

 of women were as varied as those of men, 

 from 2S. to 6s. and 8s., and children made 

 from 3s. to 6s. per week. The rents of cot- 

 tages in Romney Marsh often amounted to 2s. 

 per week, but there was, in most cases, a small 

 garden attached. 



In Sussex, men received from iis. to 12s. 

 per week; women from 3s. to 6s.; children 

 under fourteen made from 2s. 6d. to 4s., with 

 beer in haymaking and harvest times. 



With reference to beer, it is curious to 

 note that the estimate of the capacity of 

 women and children to drink varies in dif- 

 ferent counties. In some places they are 

 allowed, as we have seen, half of the quantity 

 deemed suitable for men, in others only a- 

 third, and in some cases, only half the 

 amount granted to children is permitted to 

 women. The latter must surely in these 

 parts be very susceptible of intoxicating in- 

 fluences, or the young ones very seasoned. 



In Berks, the wages range from 9s. to 15 s. 

 per week ; women from 4s. to 5s. ; and chil- 

 dren from 2S. 6d. to 5s., according to skill 

 and industry. Beer was allowed during hay. 

 time, and in the season of the hoeing of tur- 

 nips, from 6s. to 8s. was the price paid per 

 acre. 



los. per week was the amount given to 

 Hertfordshire workers, in addition to beer 

 during harvest and hay times. Women were 

 not very well paid for their out-door labour, 



receiving only 3s. 6d. per week, but the 

 privilege of gleaning brought them in from 

 ^\ to j[,2 in the season in good years. The 

 year's gleaning cannot be so profitable as it 

 was before the introduction of reaping 

 machines. Children made 2s. 6d. per week. 



In Northampton, the wages of men ranged 

 from los. to 12s., women being rather better 

 remunerated than in Hertforshire. 



In Huntingdonshire, los. tons, was paid 

 for men, and about a-third of that sum for 

 women and children under sixteen. The 

 latter were classified in the returns as being 

 of about equal value to the farmer in this 

 county. 



In Bedfordshire (the agricultural interests 

 of which have been so much promoted by 

 the Messrs Howard, not alone by the intro- 

 duction of improved implements for cultiva- 

 ting the soil, for which they have justly earned 

 so great a fame, 'but also for setting an 

 example in the county of breeding short- 

 horns, Oxfordshire Downs, and pigs), the 

 wages, in i860, were for men from los. to i is. 

 Few women were employed in field-work in 

 this county, and children under sixteen 

 ranged from 2s. 6d. to double the amount 

 per week. 



In Cambridgeshire, the men received los. ; 

 in Essex, from los. to 12s., with beer or 

 beer-money during five weeks in harvest. In 

 Suffolk, from 9s. to iis. 6d. in some districts, 

 to as high as 13s. per week in others; and 

 during hay -time the wages ranged from 2 s. 

 to 2s. 6d. per day ; in corn-harvest from 

 3s. to 4s. per day, with a couple of quarts of 

 beer. From los. to iis. were the Norfolk 

 terms per week. Wiltshire and Dorsetshire 

 labourers are each set down at from 9s. to 

 I OS., and the Devonshire men were ranged 

 at from 8e. to 12s. In Cornwall, the wages 

 were from los. to 12s., the increase over 

 Wilts and Dorset being doubtless owing to 

 the outlet for surplus labour the mines af- 

 forded. Gloucestershire farmers gave their 

 men from 9s. to los. weekly, with cider ; and 

 a similar rate of wages prevailed, with some 

 little difference in the perquisites^ throughout 

 Herefordshire and Shropshii-e, Worcester and 

 Warwickshire. 



