292 Norfolk Fanning. 



The amount of wages still depends on the price of wheat ; but 

 the run of wages is higher than formerly. Wheat at the present 

 time averages two guineas a quarter, and day labour is 9^. a week 

 in the east and 10^. in the west of the county ; formerly the 

 rate would have been a shilling under those prices. The third 

 of a coomb of wheat was the old standard for a week's labour, or 

 some calculated it. at a bushel of wheat and Ss. Either of these 

 rates would be less than is at present paid, and therefore it may 

 be fairly argued that the daily pay of the labourer has increased. 

 The difference between the rates of wages in the east and west 

 has always existed. They are rather shorter of labourers in some 

 districts of the west, and from the absence of competition among 

 millers dour is always 'Id. and sometimes 4r/. per stone dearer 

 in West Norfolk than at Norwich. Certainly taskwork costs 

 more than it did ; whether it be mowing, hoeing, draining, hedg- 

 ing, or what not, nothing is done at the old prices. All farmers 

 on comparing their present expenditure of labour with that of 

 any season 15 or 20 years back, when corn was at a similar 

 price, concur in stating the increase at fully 20 per cent. This 

 does not entirely arise from the labourer being better paid ; it is 

 also a fact that more manual labour is employed than formerly, 

 notwithstanding all the aid which machinery affords. It is not 

 the decrease of population which has made labourers scarce in 

 parts of West Norfolk, but it is the improved mode of farming 

 which absorbs more manual labour. Several parishes could be 

 named which in the days of the old Poor Law had all winter long 

 from ten to twenty ablebodied men on the roads, and which, not- 

 withstanding the increase of population and cottages, have now 

 to import labourers from adjoining villages. Hitherto there has 

 been no general or real scarcity of labourers ; but with an ex- 

 tending emigration, and the drain on the rural population for 

 the army, there is not likely again to be an overplus. 



The moral and social condition of the labourer has recently 

 attracted much attention ; and within these fifteen years the 

 upper and middle classes have exerted themselves to improve 

 his home and educate his children. But however much may 

 have been done to elevate the condition of the poor man, much, 

 very much, remains unaccomplished. In many parishes there is 

 no school, no resident squire or parson — in fact, no purse or hand 

 to minister to the wants of the poor. The worst cases are some 

 of the overgrown open villages of West Norfolk. Here people 

 build cottages for gain, and demand exorbitant rents. The scum 

 of the neighbourhood settles down in this spot; for should a man 

 lose his honesty, or a woman her virtue, both are ejected from the 

 close parish, and of course take up their abode in the next open one. 

 The houses are small and dear, crammed with grown-up children 



