PIECEWORK AND " EXTRAS/' 25 



work, which stands on quite a separate footing they 

 must necessarily vary a good deal ; but it may be said 

 that, where it is most resorted to, the labourer may 

 earn as much as from three to five pounds per annum 

 over and above what he could get as the recipient of the 

 usual weekly wage only. It does not seem very much 

 in the most favourable circumstances only about 

 two shillings a week extra, and in many cases only fifteen 

 pence extra per week. Still, the extra money, small 

 as it is, is an appreciable addition to a farm labourer's 

 small weekly pay. Sometimes, however, a first-rate man 

 will earn a good deal more than five pounds extra, and 

 occasionally the extra earnings have been known to equal 

 a third of the total earnings from all other sources ; but 

 whatever the amounts now earned by piecework may 

 be, it may be stated generally that the price of it has 

 considerably gone up during the last fifty years in nearly 

 if not quite all districts, sometimes to nearly double, 

 sometimes quite to double ; and in other instances, by 

 no means inappreciable in number, to three times (and 

 even more) than what was attainable half a century ago. 

 In one part of the North Riding of Yorkshire, for instance, 

 whereas in or about 1844 the price for hoeing corn 

 was from sixpence to one shilling per acre ; it is now 

 from eighteenpence to half a crown an acre. In Derby- 

 shire, about fifty years ago, the price paid for hoeing 

 and singling turnips was four and sixpence an acre ; 

 but now men are unwilling to do it even for ten shillings 

 an acre. On a farm in Nottinghamshire, between forty 

 and fifty years ago, five and sixpence per acre was paid 

 for hoeing turnips three times over. Now, for hoeing 

 them over twice, eleven shillings an acre can be obtained. 

 On a farm in Leicestershire the price for mowing grass 

 had risen from half a crown to three shillings an acre, 

 to six and eight shillings an acre. In Rutland during 

 the same period the piecework price for mowing had 

 doubled, rising from half a crown to five shillings an 



