GENERAL SYSTEM OF LABOUR. 97 



England are not able to obtain. In addition, a number 

 of Irish migratory labourers, both men and women, come 

 over from Ireland, and go to certain counties, chiefly for 

 corn harvest and potato-lifting, but some come earlier, 

 for turnip- thinning, haymaking, and lifting early potatoes. 

 The counties which they visit in Scotland have already 

 been referred to in this volume. In certain districts, 

 however, casual labourers are employed. In the Border 

 counties and in the Lothians, where farmers on farms 

 near towns require a good many extra hands, both men 

 and women are employed for turnip-hoeing and turnip- 

 lifting. Farmers often fetch them from, and take them 

 back to, their homes in farm waggons. Irishmen resident 

 in Glasgow often come into these districts for work on 

 farms at busy seasons. In East Berwickshire, potato- 

 lifting is frequently done by extra hands from the fishing 

 villages. In the neighbourhood of Dunbar, where potatoes 

 are largely grown, many of the wives and daughters of 

 the fishermen gather them after the plough or digger. 

 Extra men, often Irish, are frequently employed at 

 making and digging the pits. Extra hands from towns or 

 villages are sometimes employed at corn harvest on weekly 

 or monthly engagements, and they frequently get food 

 in addition to the cash wages paid. In other parts of 

 Scotland, near towns, colliery districts, or villages (where 

 they exist), extra hands, both men and women, are some- 

 times employed at special seasons, such as hoeing, weeding, 

 harvest, and potato- and turnip-lifting. In some of the 

 Highland districts the farmers employ ' orra ' labour 

 from among the ' crofters.' It is a custom in some of 

 these districts for farmers to do a certain quantity of 

 ploughing for the crofters before seed-time, and, as payment 

 for this, the crofters give so many days' labour at hay and 

 corn harvest. The wages of the regular men in Scotland 

 are, as a rule, nominally payable half-yearly or yearly, but 

 advances are usually made weekly, fortnightly, or monthly as 

 required. The custom of paying wages at short intervals (in 

 some cases weekly, but more frequently monthly) is growing 

 in favour all over the country, especially in the Lothians, 

 and many of the married men there are now paid weekly." 



