46 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



of service or contract which requires him to furnish a female 

 laborer, at ten pence per day in ordinary work, and one shilling 

 per day in harvest, whenever her services are required. If he 

 has not a wife or daughter who will answer this purpose, he 

 must keep a woman in his house to be always in readiness when 

 required. His wages were 



18 bolls of oats, at 4 bushels per boll, ... 72 bushels. 

 2 bolls of peas, &quot; &quot; &quot; . . . 8 &quot; 



4J bolls of barley, &quot; &quot; &quot; . . . 18 &quot; 



and 1 for &quot;lint&quot; or shirts. 



This payment of wages in kind, if the rate is fairly fixed, is 

 certainly an equitable mode. Its effect upon the laborers, as in 

 this case, as they themselves have grain to sell, is to make them 

 the advocates of high prices, and, consequently, the friends of 

 those restrictive measures by which foreign competition in the 

 grain market is prevented. The employer likewise keeps a cow 

 for the laborer ; or if he has no cow, an allowance is made to 

 him of five or six pounds in money. He is likewise allowed 

 1000 square yards of ground for potatoes, which the farmer 

 ploughs and manures for him ; but which he cultivates in extra 

 hours. For the rent of his house he gives twenty-one days 

 work in harvest, if required ; but should it happen that only 

 twelve or fourteen are required, it is accepted as an equivalent. 



For the woman s work he receives a fixed amount per day, 

 whenever she is employed ; and for her six months service in the 

 year he pays her three pounds. For the other six months he 

 pays her nothing more than her board and some clothes. The 

 farmer brings his coals for him, which he purchases at a small 

 sum, being small coals, here called pan-wood. The value of 

 three shillings and sixpence in coals will serve him through 

 seven weeks in winter. Seven loads (one-horse loads, I suppose) 

 of coals are purchased at the quarries for three shillings and six 

 pence. The farmer s shoes cost him ten shillings, and one pair 

 will last him eighteen months. His daughter s working shoes 

 last her a year : this is exclusive of her Sunday s shoes. In 

 most parts of Scotland, the women, in the summer season, wear 

 only their natural sandals and hose, which have, indeed, the ad 

 vantages of being easily washed, and easily repaired ; but in this 

 part of Scotland they form the exception of wearing shoes and 



