GENERAL SYSTEM OF LABOUR. 95 



well as field work, and the ploughmen's wives often help 

 at milking. In some districts in the south-western counties 

 a cottar woman or ' byre woman ' is engaged to look after 

 the dairy cows and other cattle and to do the milking. A 

 number of young women are also hired for farmhouse and 

 dairy work. On some farms the female servants who live 

 in the farmhouses assist in the housework and in the farm- 

 steadings and also do field work. It is now a frequent 

 complaint that it is most difficult to get female servants 

 for farms, as the young women prefer situations in towns. 

 For the same reason ' outworkers ' (women not living in 

 the employer's farmhouse) are also said to be getting 

 scarcer. Employers also state that the wives of ploughmen 

 are less inclined to undertake field work or milking. Girls 

 from the western islands take service in farmhouses in 

 some counties for certain periods of the year ; but it is 

 stated that not so many come now as formerly. The 

 number of women workers in Scotland is large, particularly 

 in the arable districts, and especially in the Border counties 

 and the Lothians. In these districts the number of women 

 workers is nearly equal on many farms to the number of 

 men ; and on some farms, where potatoes are largely 

 grown, there are sometimes more women than men. It 

 will readily be understood that it is a great advantage 

 to the Scottish employer to be able to secure the services 

 of a considerable body of strong and active young women 

 for field work at about half the wages of the men, especially 

 in connection with the various operations incidental to 

 the growth of large potato and turnip crops. Though 

 the wages of the women workers have been excluded 

 from this report, it may be stated that they are usually 

 paid between eight and ten shillings, sometimes eleven 

 shillings a week, with extra money at harvest, and some- 

 times at potato-lifting. In most cases the rate of daily 

 wage is less in the summer than in the winter. On many 

 of the small farms, which are mainly, if not wholly, worked 

 by the farmers and their families, the wives and daughters 

 do a great deal of field work. Farms of this character 

 are numerous in the counties of Ayr, Bute, Aberdeen, Banff, 

 Kincardine, Elgin, Nairn, Inverness, Ross, and Renfrew. 

 Speaking generally, the unmarried men are hired by the 

 half-year, and married men by the year. But there are 

 many exceptions, the engagements in some districts being 

 half-yearly for all classes, whether married or single, in 

 others yearly, in others a mixed system. Men and women, 

 with the exception of stewards and shepherds, are mostly 

 engaged at the numerous hiring or ' feeing ' fairs, which 

 are held at various periods of the year in practically every 

 county in Scotland. The system of private engagements 

 is, however, said to be increasing, particularly in the case 

 of the more experienced men, and also in the case of the 

 best women for farmhouse and dairy work. The yearly 



