GENERAL SYSTEM OF LABOUR. 125 



dairy girls and men are engaged from Kerry from about 

 St. Patrick's Day (i/th March) to Christmas Day. Again, 

 in Tipperary, in one union, engagements are by the month, 

 with a month's notice ; in another union by the week, ' wet 

 and dry ' ; in another by the day or the week, not ' wet 

 and dry.' Again, in King's County some engagements 

 are weekly and others yearly, and in County Longford, 

 engagements are yearly, half-yearly, and weekly. Generally 

 speaking, the daily engagements are to be found more 

 often in the poorer districts, or in localities where the farms 

 are small, labour not being required all the year round. 

 In many counties ordinary labourers get their food in 

 the farmhouses on working days, the cash wages in such 

 cases being at a lower rate than in districts in which no 

 food is provided. Herds and shepherds are usually en- 

 gaged by the quarter, the half-year, or the year, and the 

 notice to quit their situations varies considerably. They 

 are frequently paid largely in kind, receiving a free house, 

 some tillage land, potatoes, hay, the right to graze a certain 

 number of animals, to cut peat, etc. In cases where a 

 farmer takes more than one farm, a herd is often put in 

 charge of one, and his responsibilities are then consider- 

 able. Herds frequently stay in the same situation for 

 many years. It is not uncommon to find cases where 

 they have been born on the farm or property where they 

 are employed, and where their fathers and grandfathers 

 ' herded ' on the same farm. The engagement of men in 

 charge of horses and cattle, though sometimes as long as 

 that of herds, is often a weekly or monthly one, but their 

 work is continuous, and they frequently remain in their 

 situations a long time. Casual labourers are nearly 

 always engaged by the day, and lose no time in wet weather, 

 though they are sometimes engaged by the week. In a 

 good many districts, notably on the western side of Ireland, 

 there is not sufficient casual work to enable men to gain 

 a livelihood by it, and in such localities casual work is 

 frequently undertaken by the sons of small farmers. It 

 is in these districts that many of the small farmers and 

 their sons become migratory labourers at certain seasons 

 of the year. But in some other parts of Ireland farmers 

 have complained in recent years of a scarcity of married 

 casual labourers that is, men who earn their entire liveli- 

 hood by working for different farmers, or by taking other 

 odd jobs. In the small towns there are often some men 

 of this class. At haytime and harvest casual labour is 

 frequently in considerable request for mowing and cutting. 

 On the other hand, this class of men not infrequently 

 find it difficult to obtain sufficient work in the winter 

 months. Except where there are market gardens near 

 large towns, women are not much employed at outdoor 

 work for wages, though the wives and daughters of small 

 farmers frequently assist on the farm. At busy seasons, 



