32 THE BOSTON DISTRICT 



Wages. 



The average wage of the district is 2s. a day 

 in winter and 2s. 6d. in summer. Harvest wages 

 are extra, and there is much piece-work. Five 

 shillings a day can be earned potato-lifting, and a 

 family can get up to 12s. 6d. a day where the 

 children are old enough to work. The school 

 holidays are arranged with a view to the children 

 being free at harvesting times. 



In the parish of Friskney, a purely agricultural 

 village, with a population of 1,300, out of 145 

 ratepayers solely engaged in agriculture, 70 .., 

 50 per cent. are men who started as agricultural 

 labourers, and now own or rent small holdings. 

 The two largest farmers in the parish, one of them 

 now farming over 2,000 acres, began at 4d. a day, 

 and have worked their own way up. 



There are 68 acres of allotments in the parish, 

 let at from 30s. to 2 14s., which are nearly all held 

 by labourers, in spite of the land being a mile out of 

 the village. Preference is given to the agricultural 

 labourers before tradespeople, and young unmarried 

 men living at home are specially induced to take 

 them up. Fifty-four acres of the allotments are 

 let by the trustees of land left for the benefit of the 

 poor in the parish, and out of the rents received the 

 trustees have built double cottages, which they are 

 able to let with an acre of land apiece at 6. The 

 only people receiving parish relief are a few widows, 

 and there are practically no drunkards in the place. 



