STIRRINGS OF NEW LIFE. 153 



22s. 2d. and 2is. 3d., kept the average higher in England 

 and Wales. 



The lowest average weekly earnings in England were in 

 Oxfordshire (143. 6d.). The average rate of weekly cash 

 wages in this county, according to Returns from farmers, 

 was I2s. and the lowest rate usually paid in any rural dis- 

 trict was us. The counties where the earnings were next 

 lowest were Norfolk (153. 3d), Gloucestershire (155. 5d.),and 

 Suffolk and Dorsetshire (153. 6d.) each. The average rates 

 of weekly cash wages in Norfolk were I2S. 4d., in Gloucester- 

 shire I2s. nd., in Suffolk I2S. gd., and in Dorsetshire 

 us. nd. In Dorsetshire the rate of weekly cash wages 

 was 10 s. in some districts. 



In Wales the county where the average weekly earnings 

 were lowest was Cardiganshire (153. 8d.) ; the average rate 

 of weekly cash wages being 143. 6d. 



It should be borne in mind, however, that these official 

 figures were made up from the result of Returns filled in 

 chiefly by employers who no doubt were accurate enough with 

 regard to cash wages, but estimated the value of allowances, 

 which brings a margin for error into the calculation. The 

 Returns did not include casual labourers. The inclusion of 

 the men in charge of animals increased the general averages 

 by only lod. a week. 



The weekly average value of food consumed by a farm 

 labourer, his wife and four children was found by Mr. Fox 

 to be 133. 6|d. in England, and 155. 2d. in Scotland. 



The first independent investigator to present us with a 

 carefully drawn picture of village life in the early years of 

 the twentieth century was Dr. H. H. Mann, in his Life in an 

 Agricultural Village in England. 1 There was at this time a 

 growing re-orientation of economics in a sociological direc- 

 tion. Charles Booth broke new ground in his painstaking 

 Life and Labour of the People, which was an extensive enquiry 

 into the economic conditions of the life of those who inhabited 

 the wilderness of bricks and mortar. Mr. Seebohm Rowntree 

 continued this method in his study of York. Then Dr. 

 Mann developed the plan in his study of village life, and 



1 Sociological Papers, Vol. I. 



