190 AN AMERICAN FARMER IN ENGLAND. 



vary much, and unaccountably. I should think the average 

 for able-bodied men as day-labourers, working and receiving 

 pay only in days that commence fair, was $2.25 a week, per 

 haps averaging thirty-three cents a day. The rent of a labour 

 er s cottage, with a bit of garden attached (less than a quarter 

 of an acre), is from $15 to $25. In addition they have some 

 times a few perquisites from the farmers who regularly em 

 ploy them. A great many labourers in winter are without 

 work, and wages are then a trifle less than I have mentioned, 

 as in harvest time they are also a trifle more. The reader 

 will understand that out of this thirty-three cents, which I 

 have supposed to be the average receipts of a labourer per 

 day, he has to pay his rent, and provide food and raiment for 

 his family. Of course his diet cannot be very sumptuous (the 

 cost of provisions being, perhaps, ten per cent, higher than 

 with us), but I have not learned particulars. 



The wages of farm servants, hired by the month or year, 

 and boarded in the family, are for men, from $45 to $65 a 

 year; for boys, $15 to $25; maid-servants, $30 to 40; 

 dairy-maids, greatly varying, say from $50 to $100. 



It is customary to give all labourers and servants a certain 

 allowance of beer besides their wages. It is served out several 

 times a day, and may be supposed to cost, on an average, ten 

 cents a day for each person. One farmer estimated it at 

 twice that. 



