58 OSIERS AND WILLOWS 



should be discouraged from handling rods with dirty 

 hands. The peelers must be taught to lay the rods 

 between pegs, according to their various sizes usually 

 three, but sometimes four, according to the class of the 

 rods. When dry, the rods are graded, bundled, and 

 stored in a dry house. 



The cost to the grower in Somerset who whitens 

 his own crop may be estimated according to the prices 

 current in July 1916, at 18 per ton, made up as 

 follows : 



Three tons of one-year-old green, at 4 los. a ton, will 

 produce one ton of white at a cost for labour of 4 ios., 

 i. e. 3 155. for peering and 155. for tying and other 

 incidental expenses. In the past, in the Midlands, 

 white peeling was paid for at a daily wage of is. 3^. 

 to 2s. 6d., according to the experience of the workers. 

 The tendency now is to adopt the more businesslike 

 method of paying by weight, which ensures the 

 peelers a suitable reward for their labour. In Leicester- 

 shire, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire peeling is 

 usually done by weight. The peelers sort their one- 

 year-old rods into two classes, known as hullings and 

 rods, the price being yd. per stone for the rods, equiva- 

 lent to 4 6s. 8d. per ton, whilst the hullings cost 

 is. $d. per stone or 10 per ton (this was in 1917). 

 As the hullings represent about one-third of the rods, 

 this works out at approximately 5 155. per ton, to 

 which must be added the labour associated with tying 

 and drying. At one of the principal peeling yards in 

 the Midlands, where the peeling staff exceeds a hundred, 

 objection was taken to any form of piece-work rates, 

 and 2os. a week of 44 hours was paid to the women 

 in the spring of 1918, resulting in the cost exceeding 

 that of any previous year. 



