27g 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



chineiy, chiefly steam power. Mr. Heury Page, of Walmer 

 Court, Dover, informs me that he puts as much work by the 

 piece as possible, thereby giving the labourer an interest in 

 what he is doing. He finds he gets Is. 3d. more work done 

 in the day. Harvest work is mostly done by the acre. The 

 wheat fields, being divided into " cants" of about two acres 

 each in the spring of the year, are entered into a book ; a 

 man takes a "cant," and with his family expects to earn lOa. 

 per day. The price paid for mowing, binding, and shocking 

 is from lOs. to 15s. per acre. Barley is mown and bound 

 from 63. to 7s. per acre ; the other prices named are about 

 the average of the kingdom. Mr. F. Stoneham, of Cray- 

 ford, near Erith, Kent, thinks there cannot be any doubt as 

 to the economy of piece work where there is proper super- 

 vision ; and living as he does in a district of factories and 

 brickfields, the farmer gets the refuse hands, and thinks he 

 saves 25 per cent, in all the labour he has done by the piece. 

 Mr. Stoneham endeavours to cut all his litter for horses and 

 cattle, the cost of which is more than saved in filling and 

 spreading the manure. He pays 1 s. to 1 s. 3d. per load of 36 

 trusses; spreading manure from Is. 6d. to 2s., edge hoeing 

 peas, beans, and potatoes 2s. to 2s. 6d., hoeing turnips twice 

 10s., cutting corn from 12s. to 2O3, peracre. Whenheusesthe 

 reaping-machine, he pays 5s. per acre for binding and shocking. 

 He finds theman who goes withit,andhorsesand driver. His 

 corn is all carried by the acre, pitching, loading, stacking, 

 and baruing, at from 3s. to 33. 9d. per acre ; he binds all 

 his corn, and finds horses and drivers, but no beer for 

 anyone. The men earn from 3s. 9d. to 4s. per day, and are 

 better satisfied than when they were paid 2s. 6d. and 6 

 pints of beer per day. From Essex I have received letters 

 from Mr. W. Delf, of Great Bentley Hall, Colchester, and 

 from Mr. Wm. Thompson, jun., of Thorpe, near Colchester. 

 Mr. Delf states that he considers the system of piece work 

 to be most equitable for both masters and men. It enables 

 a good workman to turn his labour to the beat account ; and 

 an indifferent labourer will be much improved by it, as he 

 will be thrown upon his own resources ; and in times of 

 scarcity the advantage to the employer is great, as he will 

 get at least one-third more work done by the same number 

 of hands. Wheat is hoed at 3s. Gd. to 4s. 6d. peracre; 

 peas and beans about the same ; mangold and turnip hoeing, 

 including singling, at 48. to 5s. ; mowing rye-grass and 

 clover 2s. 6d, to 4s. 6d.,with 3 pints of ale and small beer. 

 Harvest work is let to a companj' of men, at the rate of £6 

 to £6 10s. per man, each to do from 9 to 11 acres, half 

 wheat and half soft corn : where the occupations are small 

 the second crop of clover is included in the corn harvest, 

 and fometimes a few acres of turnips to hoe. This is done 

 to enable a farmer to increase his company to what is called 

 a carting company. Almost unlimited potations of beer 

 are allowed, of various degrees of strength. The harvest- 

 ing of mangel wurzel has become an important feature in 

 farm work, from 9s. to 12s. per acre is a common price paid 

 for this work. Mr. W. Thompson advocates piece work, 

 and thinks day work tends to make men lazy. There are 

 two ways of paying harvest wages in this locality, one is 

 by the month of 24 fine working days, the other by letting 

 the men as many acres as they can fairly do in the 

 month, varying from 8 to 12 acres for each man ; on the 

 best farms near the coast 8 acres are enough. £6 has been 

 the rate of harvest wages for the last three or four years. 

 Each of his men working by the piece cut rather more than 

 9 acres of wheat and barley, in equal proportion, last har- 

 vest. Draining at 30 inches deep costs from 4s. to 6s, for 

 20 rods or poles, the furrow first being ploughed out ; pul- 



ling mangolds and swedes, and laying thtm iu rows ready 

 for filling into carts at 3s. to 'ds. 6d. per acre. I have also 

 received letters from Mr, Hawkins, of Bentley, near Ips- 

 wich, Mr. Ruston, of Chatteris, and Mr. Robert Russell, of 

 Farningham, but they also reached me too late for me to 

 make use of. From Scotland I have received several most 

 interesting letters full of valuable information, and which I 

 only regret I cannot give you at length. However, I ex- 

 tract from them as follows : Mr. Hope, of Fenton Barns, 

 Drem, writes that there is much less work done by the 

 piece than there was some years ago : except filling manure 

 and switching hedges, everything else is done at day's 

 wages. Draining is now almost over, and the mowing and 

 reaping machines have put an end to cutting clover and hay 

 by the scythe, and diminished the quantity of grain that 

 was formerly let by the acre. Last harvest Mr. Hope cut 

 four-fifths of his grain by machinery. The men in charge 

 of the machines are engaged and paid by the year, but he 

 allowed each man a small sum for every acre cut. It was 

 gathered and tied up on day's wages; of course, the 

 gatherers had to keep up with the machine. His work- 

 people are mostly hired by the year, and are either married, 

 or young men living with their parents. He has no " bon- 

 dagers." The men are paid in grain, with keep of cow, 

 cottage, &c., and may have about 13s. per week. Mr. J. 

 Wilson, of Edington Mains, Berwickshire, states : " Our 

 towns and villages are small and wide apart, so that there 

 is a necessity for the labourers required for each farm to be 

 resident upon it ; and accordingly a row of cottages forms 

 an invariable part of every homestead. The " hinds," as 

 our farm labourers are called, are engaged by the year from 

 Whitsunday to Whitsunday, the engagement taking place 

 aboutthe 1st March. A hind's wages at present consist of 

 £4 in money, 54 bushels of oats, 21 bushels of barley, 9 

 bushels of peas, the keep of a cow (grass in summer, and 3 

 tons of turnips and straw in winter), food during harvest, 

 say for a month, and a small money allowance when de- 

 livering grain. This will amount to about 10s. per week, 

 taking one year with another. Being a yearly servant, his 

 wages are not liable to deduction from bad weather or 

 casual sickness ; but with the terms already enumerated, 

 there is associated a further arrangement, by which the 

 hind engages to furnish throughout the year the services of 

 a female or stout lad, popularly called a " bondager," for 

 whose work the hind receives at the rate of Is. per day from 

 Candlemas to Martinmas, and lOd. from the latter to the 

 former term, with the current rates of harvest wages, say 

 from 2s. 6d. to 3s. while reaping is in hand, and food all 

 harvest. On consideration of keeping this field-worker or 

 bondager, he further gets a cottage and small garden rent 

 free, has what coal he requires carted by his employer, and 

 gets one-third of an acre of land on which to plant potatoes, 

 the farmer supplying manure and horse labour, the hind 

 providing the sets and undertaking the hoeing and digging 

 of the crop. From the remarks in a most interesting letter 

 1 have received from Mr. Wilson, which I regret time will 

 not allow me to read, there does not appear to be the same 

 objection to the bondager system that many people have 

 hitherto thought; indeed, the farm labourers of Berwick- 

 shire appear to be a most thrifty, intelligent, and well-con- 

 ducted class of men. The harvest work is done by the 

 day, the men working in sets of five for ten hours a day, 

 any piece work upon the farm being quite the exception. 

 Mr. Peter MacLagan, of Pumpherstone, Mid Calder, Mid 

 Lothian, in a highly interesting letter, which it is a pity the 

 Club cannot publish in full, states he prefers piece work to 



