250 ON MEASURE-WORK. 



number of loads carted on the lieap, and by that means fixes 

 a price at so much per score loads of about 1^ cubic yards 

 each. For turning* over farm-yard manure Is. per score, 

 and for picking- down and turning- over heaps composed of 

 earth and manure, 2s. per score loads are paid. 



4. Buvn'wy Peat-ashes is an uncertain employment for 

 the labourer; the quantity of ashes depending- in a great 

 measure upon the weather for drying- the peat. The cus- 

 tomary payment for burning- peat-ashes is about 5/. per 

 1000 bushels, reckoning- 25 bushels to a cubic yard. I 

 think, however, ^^ayment by the cubic yard is quite as cor- 

 rect a way of ascertaining- the true quantity. The season 

 for burning- being- at an end, the ashes are laid (previously to 

 thatching-) in a rectangular heap of 15 feet averag-e width, 

 3 feet in depth, and to any convenient leng"th ; the length, 

 breadth, and depth being- multiplied into each other, and 

 then divided by 27, we shall thus have the number of cubic 

 yards. The price paid by us, per yard, is from 2.9. to 2^. 4</.; 

 in an averag-e season of twenty weeks (harvest included) a 

 man and his wife burnt 200 cubic yards, which at 2s. a yard 

 g-ave them 1/. a week. 



IV. — Tasli-morli to which the Corn Pleasure is ai^pUcahle. 



Table of Corn Measure. 

 4 pecks .... make 1 bushel. 

 4 bushels . . . . ,,1 coomb. 



8 bushels . . . • m 1 quarter. 



Corn measure applies to thrashing- corn by the flail — a prac- 

 tice which will, it is hoped, be soon superseded by thrashing-- 

 machines. However, as a larg-e portion of g-rain is still 

 thrashed by manual labour, I cannot but give it a place in 

 my description of piece-work. The quantity of corn thrashed 

 in a g-iven time, either by the flail or by machines, will depend 

 upon a variety of circumstances ; the kind of soil u])on which 

 the g-rain g-rew, the season and the condition when harvested, 

 will all affect the quantity thrashed in a g-iven time. In our 

 neig-hbourhood (Suffolk) but a small proportion of the farmers 

 have thrashing'-machines of their own; but there are men 

 who get their living- by letting- out portable machines at a 

 certain price per day : these are g-enerally worked by four 

 horses; the charge for a machine, with a man to tend, is 

 12.S. a day, besides the expense of moving- the machine and 

 boardine,- the man. On an averas-e these will thrash from 



