WAGES. 51 



English agricultural labourers. As explanatory of the 

 table, however, there are some notes in the Board of 

 Trade report that it is important to quote. They are 

 as follows : 



" The figures for Northumberland and Durham relate 

 to ploughmen (or ' hinds '), and in Cumberland, Westmor- 

 land, and North Lancashire to ' married labourers.' In 

 Northumberland and Durham the ' hinds ' form by far the 

 majority of the farm servants, there being comparatively 

 few ordinary labourers (' spade hinds '). Generally speak- 

 ing, however, the wages of the spade hinds and also of 

 the cattlemen or ' byremen,' except that these two classes 

 often get some extra allowance in kind for special work, 

 are about the same as those of the ploughmen. In Cumber- 

 land, Westmorland, and North Lancashire > the majority of 

 the farm servants are unmarried men, who lodge and board 

 in the farmhouses ; and, as many of the farms are small, 

 the occupiers being frequently working farmers, taking 

 part themselves in the ordinary work of the farm, the hired 

 men cannot generally be classified according to their duties, 

 as they usually undertake all kinds of work whenever 

 needed. The wages of the married labourers attached to 

 the staff of a farm, who are paid weekly, have been given 

 in the table, in the case of Cumberland, Westmorland, 

 Lancashire, and also Yorkshire. This class is also frequently 

 employed to some extent in looking after animals in the 

 first three counties, and also in some parts of Yorkshire 

 on the smaller farms." 



The report continues : 



" The average weekly rates of cash wages shown in the 

 table are computed from the rates returned by farmers, 

 the number of men employed at such rate being taken into 

 account, and where the summer rates differed from those 

 paid in the winter, the figure given is an average of the 

 summer and winter rates, it being reckoned that the ratio 

 of summer to winter weeks is as three to two. The rates 

 from which the averages are computed are the weekly rates 

 of cash wages which would be paid when the men were not 

 engaged at piecework or harvest. In the total of earnings, 

 from which the weekly wages per man from each county 

 were calculated, every payment, whether in cash or kind, 

 made to the labourers, had been included, a money value 

 having been attached for this purpose to such payments as 

 were not made in cash. Free cottages, which are generally 

 the most important payment made in kind, have been 

 valued at 4 a year throughout, although some would no 

 doubt let for more and others for less. It will be seen that 

 the excess of the average weekly earnings over the average 

 weekly rates of cash wages varies considerably in the different 



