EXPENSES AND RETURNS 31 



Cost of Cutting the Crop and Carrying off 



Although the following prices apparently show great 

 variations, the actual net results are very much the 

 same in whatever district the work is undertaken, it 

 being a question entirely whether the bundles are 

 tightly or loosely tied and the height that the cutter 

 fixes his band from the butts. Capable cutters in 

 any of the districts named, will during the short days 

 of the cutting season earn with a full week's employ- 

 ment from 2 to 2 i os. Very expert men considerably 

 exceed this amount in the longer days of the early 

 spring. The system of payment and the methods of 

 cutting vary considerably in each of the districts in 

 which willows are mainly grown. 



In the Midland Counties embracing Leicestershire 

 and Nottinghamshire, 35. per score was the price paid 

 in 1918 for bundles 36 in. in circumference, with. the 

 band about 8 in. from the butt. In the Isle of 

 Ely the price was 45. per score, and the size of the 

 bundle 45 in. In other parts of East Anglia 45. 8d. 

 to 55. 6d. per score was paid according to the 

 size of the crop for bundles 42 in. Berkshire was 

 paying 6s. to 75. per score for bundles 42 in. In Somer- 



turned off seven tons to the acre, realised B per ton in 1918 

 when cut and bundled as grown. The working quality of 

 this material, we understand, was of the best. In East 

 Anglia, where the crops on the whole in 1917 did not do 

 well, as much as 10 per ton was paid for well-grown best 

 quality Long Small, Threepenny, and Small Middles boro', but 

 this additional price is only about equivalent to the Barrow 

 sale, because the Small, the Large, and Rough have all been 

 thrown out, and of course will not realise anything near the 

 same price. In both instances the material was bought for 

 buffing. 



"Dicky Meadows " have sold freely by auction at from 10 

 t > 2 P er tOn in the season of 1917-18. 



