72 FRANCE - AGRT.CUI,TURAI, ECONOMY IN GENERAL 



but this does not hold good for most of the other districts. In Region 

 VITI, in particular, the difference is hardly perceptible. 



In relation to the importance of income in kind the age of the labourers 

 should be considered. In Region VII, in particular, a sufficiently large 

 proportion of old men, whose earnings are comparatively small and below 

 the average, has been observed. It is in this district ~ Loiret, Eure-et-L,oir 

 Sarthe — that the earnings of labourers fed by their employers seem to 

 be highest, higher even than in the next region, that of Nord. The follow- 

 ing figures show the amount of agricultural wages as estimated by the 

 investigators. 



In the department of Eure-et-Loir wages were estimated as follows : 



Shepherd looo francs a year and focd 



First carter lOoo " " " " " 



General labourer . . from 500 to 700 " " " " " 



These amounts are said on an average to have doubled within tliirty 

 years. It is stated that wherever in Oise the custom of feeding employees 

 has been preserved, that is in the western district of the department, the 

 wages of carters and cowmen so fed are between 550 and 700 francs a 3^ear ; 

 they are between iioo and 1600 francs in the eastern and south-eastern 

 districts where the men are no longer so fed. In Seine-Inferieure, according 

 to an investigator, the annual wages of a carter so fed are 500 francs and 

 the daily wages of a labourer so fed are 1.25 francs. For Haute- Marne the 

 daily wages are given as follows : 



1881 19 13 



Summer Winter Sxmimer Winter 



Journeyman workman fed by employer , . 2 1.50 3 2 



" " not fed ]^y employer 3.50 2.50 4 3 



In Doubs a farm hind earns from 400 to 450 francs a year while in 

 Aveyron 500 francs are said to represent his minimum. 



Generally speaking, agricultural wages are found to have risen notably 

 in the last thirty years, the rate of increase varying, according to the esti- 

 mates, with districts or with the kinds of labourers, from 30 to 100 per cent. 

 It seems also to be admitted that the circumstances of the labourers fed 

 by employers are usually easier than those of such as are not thus fed ; but 

 these conclusions result from estimates which are mainly subjective and it 

 is very difficult to arrive at any such by precise numerical data. 



Table III shows for all regions the various elements of the income of 

 all the labourers' households, classified according to the number of their 

 members. The calculation does not apply to the households of labourers 

 not fed by their employers. 



