126 BRITISH RURAL LIFE AND LABOUR. 



however, in some districts, women are engaged, generally 

 by the day, for such work as haymaking and harvest, 

 weeding and hoeing, turnip-lifting, potato-picking, and 

 flax-pulling. A good many girls are engaged in the farm- 

 houses for farmhouse work." 



Separated by a comparatively narrow arm of the sea 

 from the western side of Scotland, it is not surprising 

 that in Ulster the hiring system is similar to that of 

 the first -named country. In the subsequent chapter 

 on earnings of the Irish peasantry it will also be noticed 

 that the highest-wage counties, Antrim and Down, also 

 benefit, so to speak, by the juxtaposition as it were of 

 the prosperous agricultural region comprehended within 

 Ayr, Wigtown, and Renfrew. These opposite coasts 

 are in a sense, in fact, in touch with each other, and that 

 no doubt, at least in part, explains a sort of high-wage 

 uniformity in the respective districts. 



