OF THE COUNTY OF DOWN. zij 



Reaping feldom done by the acre, but fometimes by 

 the ftook of twelve fheaves, at one penny per ftook; ia 

 this way the farmer may be certain of fmall (heave's, 

 and clofe cutting, to increafe the number; a good 

 reaper in this way will earn from fourteen pence to 

 eighteen pence per day. 



Hours of labour are, in ftimmer, from fix to fix, an 

 hour allowed at breakfaft, the fame at dinner ; in haf- 

 vefl, from the time the grain is dry in the morning, un- 

 til it is dark. It is accounted very bad hulbandry to 

 reap while the ftfaw is wet, unlefs it is fuffered to re- 

 main untied, to allow the moifture to evaporate. la 

 harveft a very fhort time is taken up at meals, efpecially 

 if the feafon is late. In winter the hours of labour are 

 from fun-rife to fun-fet; breakfaft is the only meal at 

 this feafon, taken in the courfe of the day; dinner after 

 it is dark. In harveft moft of the wearers of linen tura 

 t>ut to reaping, &c. and moft of the young women; 

 this gives a great command of hands at this neceffary 

 work, which, when the grain is completely ripe, goes 

 on with very great rapidity; the confequence of the 

 great population of this county, and of the manufac* 

 turers 6eing fpread over the land, inftead of living to- 

 gether in towns. 



The price of labour has much increafed in and 

 around the towns, but not confiderably in the country, 

 within thefe laft twenty years, except in two or three 

 articles, as turf-aitting, mowing, and thatching. 



