158 ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL LABOURER. 



The average earnings of the carters were i6s. gd. per week ; 

 of the cowman, 155. 70! ; and of the ordinary agricultural 

 labourer 155. 3|d., which sums included all allowance such as 

 harvest money, milk, beer, house and garden. 



Having ascertained the earnings of all householders Miss 

 Davies next set to work to find out how the money was 

 spent. She found twenty-eight families comprising 144 

 persons, mostly of the purely labouring class, who were living 

 in a state of primary poverty. In order to define primary 

 poverty she followed the formula set by Mr. Rowntree * and 

 Dr. H. H. Mann. An estimate was made of the minimum cost 

 at which food, fuel, dress, household sundries, and house room 

 sufficient for efficiency could be obtained in the parish, and 

 it was then seen how many families were below this standard, 

 or in primary poverty. The standard adopted by Mr. Rown- 

 tree in York was less generous than that of the Local Govern- 

 ment Board Dietaries for Workhouses. As has been shown 

 Mr. Rowntree's standard works out at 35. for a man 

 or woman, and 2s. 3d. for a child, as the minimum 

 necessary cost of food. Against the dearer prices of pro- 

 visions in a village the author offsets the advantage of 

 cheaper vegetables and fruit. No charge was made for 

 rent in her table of figures as she considered the garden 

 produce covered that ; firing was put at is. ; sundries 

 at2d.; and clothing at 6dper adult and 3d. per child. This 

 meant that even a carter with his i6s. gd., if he had as many 

 as three children, would be in primary poverty. All the 

 ordinary labourers, with the exception of one, were in 

 primary poverty. 



And whilst there were twenty-five families in this condi- 

 tion, no less than thirty-seven famines were living in what 

 Miss Davies calls secondary poverty, under which terms are 

 classified those who had a surplus of only is. a head per week 

 above the line of primary poverty a line which unemploy- 

 ment or sickness may cast them over at any time, plunging 

 them into the abysmal depths of extreme poverty. 



And yet Corsley was what the author calls a " prosperous 

 village," the prosperity of which was due to the distribution 

 1 Poverty : a Study of Town Life. 



