34 BRITISH RURAL LIFE AND LABOUR. 



to the crops not being beaten down, are able to use the 

 self -binding machines, and thus save labour, and owing 

 to fine weather are able to get the harvest in rapidly, while 

 the men engaged at piecework or on contract are able to get 

 through the work quickly and without interruption. Conse- 

 quently , they can earn their harvest money in a short time, and 

 be free to go on with other work at the current rate of weekly 

 wages. On the other hand, if the weather is bad, those who 

 are paid a lump sum for the whole harvest, and those who 

 are paid a certain sum for a month and then are paid the 

 ordinary rate of wages, are at a disadvantage. The former 

 take a long time to earn their harvest money, and earn 

 nothing at all on wet days, and the latter have to finish 

 up the harvest and perhaps work a lot of overtime in return 

 for merely the ordinary wages. When a lump sum is paid 

 for the whole harvest, this sum is divided equally among 

 the different men engaged in the work. Again, those on 

 piecework run the risk of not being able to work in wet 

 weather. On the other hand, piecework men often get more 

 work if the crops are heavy and much beaten down, as the 

 labour-saving self-binders cannot be used, and they are 

 paid higher rates for work involving special difficulty. If 

 the weather is too bad for harvest operations, a good many 

 farmers often offer the men other work at the ordinary 

 weekly wages." 



The great piecework harvest counties are Beds, 

 Berks, Cambridge, Dorset, Essex, Gloucester, Hamp- 

 shire, Hertfordshire, Huntingdonshire, Kent, Lincoln- 

 shire, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, 

 Oxfordshire, Suffolk, Sussex, Warwickshire, Wiltshire, 

 and Worcestershire. The counties are here named 

 alphabetically, and not according to their relative corn- 

 growing importance. It was found, according to a Board 

 of Trade return, that the average earnings per man 

 (during one entire harvest) of 1233 men, was in the 

 southern and south-western counties, 4, 175. 2d., in the 

 Midlands, 5, 135. 6d., and 7, 55. 7d. in Cambridge, 

 Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Lincoln. 



