258 ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL LABOURER. 



especially in the north of England and in Wales, where 

 trade unionism was still weak, or non-existent. 



At this stage of the history of the farm workers we get 

 the organiser systematically entering every county of 

 England and Wales and making desperate efforts to find 

 suitable men to sit on the District Committees. Organisers 

 can tell humorous stories of how they have descended, 

 when hard put to it, upon a man who was not even a trade 

 unionist, milking a cow or baiting a horse, insisting upon 

 him serving on the Committee. The part the organiser 

 played in improving the condition of the farm worker 

 is so great that, though I am nearing the end of my history, 

 I feel I must devote an entire chapter to this modern 

 product of agricultural trade unionism. That the farm 

 worker was ready to listen to the organiser one can 

 easily understand, for even as late as January, 1918, 

 official investigators declared that the average wage of 

 the ordinary agricultural labourer in sixteen counties 

 was 255., or less, 1 whilst the cost of living had risen 

 106 per cent. 



1 Wages and Conditions of Employment in Agriculture. Cmd. 24. p. 

 105. 



