WHAT OF THE HARVEST? 323 



eral Workers, National Amalgamated Labourers' Union, 

 National Union of Labour, the Navvies' and the National 

 Bricklayers' Labourers' Union. We may therefore reckon 

 that more than half of the agricultural labourers in England 

 and Wales are now organised industrially. 



In January, 1920, a demand was made by the farm workers 

 for a minimum wage of 505. on a forty-eight hours' week. 

 His average earnings, including all allowances, stood in 

 1919 at 373. 6d., and the cost of living had steadily risen. 

 To spend a whole week's wages on purchasing a pair of boots 

 for her ploughman-husband boots which lasted only six 

 months let alone the purchase of shoes for her children 

 and clothes (which had risen 300 per cent, in price) for all the 

 family, filled every wife with anxiety. Had not farmers 

 declared before the Tribunals that their farms could not be 

 worked without the labour of this or that man ? As the 

 unskilled labourer in any industry was awarded 505. or more 

 why should not the craftsman of the fields be paid as much ? 

 All workers began to feel it would be disastrous to British 

 agriculture if farm labourers left the land as soon as the 

 building boom began, in order to obtain the 3 a week, or 

 more, paid to any bricklayer's labourer. 



Furthermore, in the face of the evidence before the Royal 

 Commission on Agriculture, that the Forfar farmer paid 

 his ploughman 3 a week, and provided him with meal, milk, 

 potatoes, a cottage, and fuel, which altogether were equiva- 

 lent to 190 a year * the claim for 503. seemed irresistible. 

 That much of the land in Forfar is first-class is undeniable, 

 but there is also poor land in this county on which the 

 farmer has to pay exactly the same wages, and the 190 a 

 year is paid in cash and kind on land which is rented as highly 

 as 3 los. an acre. 



However, the 503. a week minimum was not granted, 

 but on March 8, after consulting the District Wages Com- 

 mittees, the Agricultural Wages Board decided to publish a 

 proposal to raise the minimum wage to 423. , with an increase 

 of 45.2 a week in areas where the rate was already fixed 



1 Minutes of Evidence, Royal Commission on Agriculture, Vol. II., par.87O5 . 

 * With the recent increase in the price of bread the 45. increase in the 

 wage of a farm labourer with a family will be rendered nugatory. 



