PIECEWORK AND " EXTRAS." 27 



overtime money at haytime and other busy seasons. In 

 the northern counties the hired men are paid an inclusive 

 wage, getting no piecework or other extra money payments. 

 In many of the arable districts, where weekly cash wages 

 are the lowest, there is more to be earned by piecework 

 and extra harvest wages than in the grass counties, where 

 the men are paid a higher rate of cash wages and have 

 fewer opportunities of earning extra money. No accurate 

 comparison can therefore be made between the rates of 

 weekly cash wages of ordinary agricultural labourers in 

 counties like Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Oxfordshire, Berk- 

 shire, Wiltshire, and Dorsetshire, where the rates are low, 

 and those of such labourers in counties like Northumber- 

 land, Cumberland, Westmorland, Durham, and Lancashire, 

 where the rates are high. The only comparison which can 

 properly be made is between the actual yearly earnings in 

 the different counties, including in such earnings the special 

 payments referred to. The extra cash earnings of ordinary 

 agricultural labourers consist mainly of payments for 

 piecework and corn harvest, and overtime at hay harvest. 

 In some places extra cash is paid for hay harvest whether 

 overtime is worked or not. It is not usual for labourers 

 on time work to do overtime except when engaged at hay 

 and corn harvests." 



Whilst men in charge of animals on farms also generally 

 receive " extras " for additional and exceptional work 

 the exceptions to extra payment being found in some 

 of the northern counties of England the nature of 

 their occupations preclude the application of the piece- 

 work system to them. Nevertheless, at harvest times 

 they do sometimes assist at those seasons of pressure, 

 and for this assistance receive some extra pay. As an 

 illustration of this, it may be mentioned that in some 

 parts of Norfolk and Suffolk, when in May horses are 

 turned out into the fields to graze, the team men do 

 a little piecework, " joining in " with the ordinary 

 labourers. Cattlemen, too, have opportunities during the 

 summer and autumn seasons of doing some piecework. 

 For shepherds the extra pay is in " lamb money." 

 That, in fact, is their principal " cash extra," and it 

 varies from a penny to a shilling, or from threepence to 

 sixpence the difference is rather marked for every 

 lamb reared, or for lambs alive at a particular date. It 



