PRICES OF LAND, LABOUR, 



lying about, here and there, and pigs and cattle trampling about 

 in a sort of confusion, which would make an English farmer fret 

 himself to death ; but which is here seen with great placidness. 

 The out-buildings, except the barns, and except in the finest 

 counties of Pennsylvania, are not so numerous, or so capacious, 

 as in England, in proportion to the size of the farms. The reason 

 is, that the weather is so dry. Cattle need not covering a twentieth 

 part so much as in England, except hogs, who must be warm as 

 well as dry. However, these share with the rest, and very little 

 covering they get. 



313. Labour is the great article of expence upon a farm ; yet 

 it is not nearly so great as in England, in proportion to the amount 

 of the produce of a farm, especially if the poor-rates be, in both 

 cases, included. However, speaking of the positive wages, a 

 good farm-labourer has twenty -five pounds sterling a year and his 

 board and lodging ; and a good day-labourer has, upon an average, 

 a dollar a day. A woman servant, in a farm-house, has from forty 

 to fifty dollars a year, or eleven pounds sterling. These are the 

 average of the wages throughout the country. But, then, mind, 

 the farmer has nothing (for, really, it is not worth mentioning) 

 to pay in poor-rates : which in England, must always be added to 

 the wages that a farmer pays ; and, sometimes, they far exceed 

 the wages. 



314. It is, too, of importance to know, zuhat sort of labourers 

 these Americans are ; for, though a labourer is a labourer, still 

 there is some difference in them ; and, these Americans are the 

 best that I ever saw. They mow/owr acres of oats, wheat, rye, or 

 barley in a day, and, with a cradle, lay it so smooth in the swarths, 

 that it is tied up in sheaves with the greatest neatness and ease. 

 They mow two acres and a half of grass in a day, and they do the 

 work well. And the crops, upon an average, are all, except the 

 wheat, as heavy as in England. The English farmer will want 

 nothing more than these facts to convince him, that the labour, 

 after all, is not so very dear. 



315. The causes of these performances, so far beyond those in 

 England, is first, the men are tall and well built ; they are bony 

 rather than fleshy : and they live, as to food, as well as man can 

 live. And, secondly, they have been educated to do much in a 

 day. The farmer here generally is at the head of his &quot; boys,&quot; 

 as they, in the kind language of the country, are called. Here 

 is the best of examples. My old and beloved friend, Mr. JAMES 

 PAUL, used, at the age of nearly sixty to go at the head of his mowers, 

 though his fine farm was his own, and though he might, in other 

 respects, be called a rich man ; and, I have heard, that Mr. ELIAS 

 HICKS, the famous Quaker Preacher, who lives about nine miles 

 from this spot, has this year, at seventy years of age, cradled down 

 four acres of rye in a day. I wish some of the preachers of other 

 descriptions, especially our fat parsons in England, would think 

 .a little of this, and would betake themselves to &quot; work with their 



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