THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



273 



day labour, considering it more profitable to the employer, 

 and an encouragement to skill and industry to tbe 

 workman— has always felt the great injustice of that 

 too prevalent a system of paying the same wages to .all 

 men and ^voraen performing the same kind of work, re- 

 gards such a system as a premium to idleness, and leaving 

 skillunacknowledgedand unrewarded. In Mid Lothian very 

 little of the work is done by the piece, except hay-cutting, 

 which costs 2s. 6d. to ?>s. per acre, without beer. Potatoes 

 are occasionally, after being dug or lifted, raised and sacked 

 ready for market at 9d. per boli of 4 cwt. When harvest 

 work is done by the day, the reaping is performed by a ma- 

 chine or by a band pf reapers, overseen by a careful man, 

 two reapers being put on a ridge of IG feet, and one man 

 binds to four reapers. Formerly, when tooth sickles were 

 used, and the work waa performed more slowly, one man 

 bound to six reapers. At the present day there are certain 

 men in every district who make a business of contracting for 

 the cutting of the crop ; they supplj' all the workers, and 

 obtain lodging at the steading, with, perhaps, milk for their 

 porridge. The price of cutting, gathering, binding, and 

 shocking is from lis. to 10s. per acre. One of the great 

 advantages derived from the use of the reaping-machine is 

 the doing away with the evil of crowding so many people of 

 both sexes promiscuously about the steading at harvest time- 

 Draining is always done by the piece, at a cost of Is. fid. to 

 23. per chain of 22 yards, three feet deep, and from 2s. Cd. 

 to 23. 8d. for four- feet drains. The practice in Mid- Lothian 

 of hiring the hinds is the same as in Berwickshire ; but the 

 annual payment is as follows : — G5 stones of oatmeal, 12 to 

 16 cwt. of potatoes, and £22 in money ; in East Lothian, 

 9 qrs. of oats, 18 bush, of barley, 24 to 32 cwt. of potatoes, 

 2 qrs. of beans, keep of a cow for one year or £6, lint 

 money £1. Mr. Mac Lagan states that "bondages" are 

 gradually being abolished, and a system of establishing 

 female bothies is being introduced. Mr. Robert Elliott, of 

 Leighwood, near Dunkeld, who has one of the finest home- 

 steads in the country, with a tract of country of 15,000 to 

 20,000 acres in extent attached, belonging to the Duke of 

 Athole, states in general the work of the farm in Scotland 

 ia performed by day work ; piece work is, however, gradually 

 creeping in, and is generally preferred by those who have 

 tried it. On a small farm, occupied by a working tenant 

 and his family, he considers the ordinary work can be most 

 profitably done by the day ; and on all farms where horse 

 labour is employed, the work should be done by the day, 

 while all other operations can be performed more economi- 

 cally by the piece. In Scotland turnips are generally cleared 

 and singled by women and boys, with a proper superin- 

 tendent sent alon=; with them ; here daj' work is the best. 

 Mr. Elliott, however, thinks where men are employed as in 

 many parts of England, piece work is by far the best. He 

 has even let the clearing of land of boulders or earth-fast 

 stones by the acre. Mr. Elliott has about half his corn cut 

 by the acre at about the same price we pay in England, viz., 

 from 8s. to 10s. per acre; the other half by the ordinary 

 workers of the farm, on days' wages. The wages of a hind 

 throughout the year are lis. Cd. per week, with a house and 

 small garden, and the keep of a cow. He condemns the 

 practice of paying men in meal above the requirements of 

 their family, and strongly advocates the garden and cow; 

 he keeps 24 cows for his ploughmen. From what I have 

 gathered of the Scotch system, I am inclined to think that 

 while we are before them in piece work, they are before us 

 in England in the management of their day work; for it 

 appears whenever a number of teams of horses or men are 



sent out, or a gang of women and boys, a trustworthy man 

 accompanies them as overlooker, whose duty it is to keep 

 them going, and to work himself. A similar practice with 

 gangs of boys has for many years been adopted with much 

 success on the Duke of Bedford's farm at Woburn. Per- 

 haps, after having read the plans and opinions of so many 

 other farmers, I may now be expected to state my own prac- 

 tice ; it is as follows : — To let as much work as I possibly 

 can, particularly to the best-conducted and those of my men 

 who have large families. The work done in this manner, 

 commencing after harvest, is the filling of manure, for which 

 I pay for the heap or for emptying the yard ; I consider this 

 plan preferable to paying by the load ; there is no dispute 

 then about the size of the load. The trimming of hedges, 

 with the bushes raked, at 2^d. per chain. The whole of 

 my land is what is styled turnip land ; but as I do not wish 

 to grow that root so frequently, I grow a large breadth of 

 wurzels, two-thirds of which I leave on the land to be con- 

 sumed by sheep in the spring, for the getting up and cover- 

 ing of which I give from 7s. Gd. to 8s. per acre; the other 

 one-third are thrown into small heaps, and covered with the 

 tops, ready for the carts ; for this I give from 5s. to Cs. per 

 acre ; the carting and clamping are done by the day. Turnips 

 cleaned and covered, with one-fourth to go oil", at from 78. to 8s. 

 per acre ; this price includes the filling of those that are re- 

 moved. Hand-hoeing wheat from 33. to 3s. Cd.: Ilast season used 

 a newly-invented horse-hoe for thispurpose with great success : 

 hoeing peas after horse hoe, 2s. OJ. ; beans, :)s. Od. to 4s.; 

 turnip and mangold hoeing on tbe ridge, at twenty-four 

 inches apart, setting out and flat hoeing, ;Js. 6d. to Gs. 6d. 

 per acre ; washing and shearing sheep, 3s. per score ; mow- 

 ing grass and clover, :2s. (3d. per acre, with beer. My plan 

 of harvesting has hitherto been to hire the whole of my 

 men and boys, generally at double their ordinary day's pay, 

 with a liberal allowance of beer for the month, thus secur- 

 ing their services. Besides this, however, I let to a com- 

 pany of tiiese same hired men the cutting of the wheat and 

 barley, thus giving them an opportunity of earning more 

 tlian their day's pay. I b;^ve had two reaping machines^ 

 which in certain seasons have done good service, but during 

 the last two seasons they have been of little use. I have 

 found this plan to answer very well ; but I must confess, 

 from all T have heard and seen, that the most satisfactory 

 plan is, as I before stated, to let the whole of the cutting, 

 carting, and thatching, as adopted by Mr. Pike and other 

 gentlemen. The principal thing that will require looking 

 to, under this system, is to see that they do not carry the 

 corn before it is ready. And now, gentlemen, I think I am 

 justified, by the correspondence I have read to you, in stat- 

 ing that a well-adjusted system of piece work, particularly 

 in busy times, appears to be approved by the practical men 

 who have favoured me with iheir views ; and I take this 

 opportunity of publicly thanking those gentlemen for so 

 kindly and promptly forwarding me such valuable informa- 

 tion. With the increasing demand for labour, with a de- 

 creasing supply in many parts of England, it behoves us as 

 farmers to adopt a course by wliicli to meet this state of 

 things. The extension of piece work, I hold, will have this 

 tendency. Our position differs materially from the farmers 

 of a former generation. At the present day we have far 

 more expensive machinery, with well fed teams, to be kept 

 coin", a greater number of much more valuable animals to 

 he teudeil, larger crops to be gathered, and higher rents to 

 pay; we cannot afford, therefore, to have fellows crawling 

 through their day's work as in times gone by. We must, 

 like the manufacturers, have more activity, if we pay more 



