128 BRITISH RURAL LIFE AND LABOUR. 



" The following operations are sometimes done by 

 piecework : cutting and saving turf, mowing, making 

 fences, making drains, grubbing up furze, stone-breaking, 

 and occasionally thinning turnips. Mowing and saving 

 hay by piecework is chiefly done by casual labourers, who 

 are often engaged at it for a number of weeks, and in some 

 districts they are in considerable request. They also do 

 cutting at corn harvest in some districts by piecework. 

 Ploughmen sometimes do ploughing, and herds occasion- 

 ally do shearing and cut and save hay by piecework. In 

 some districts it used to be a common practice for herds 

 to be bound by the terms of their agreement to cut and 

 save a certain quantity of hay each year, but since the 

 introduction of machinery the custom is dying out." 



The custom of giving the labourers " allowances in 

 kind " is by no means an extensive one in Ireland, 

 excepting, of course, the cases of those which are lodged 

 and boarded in farmhouses, and who, necessarily, receive 

 a substantial part of their remuneration in that way. 

 There are instances, however, in which such payments 

 are made, and when this is so they consist of such things 

 as milk free, free turf given, or the right to cut it conceded. 

 Coal also may occasionally be given free, or free grazing 

 provided for an animal. Potato-ground also comes in, 

 as in other parts of the kingdom, and then there is the 

 free manuring or it may be tilling of ground. When, 

 however, allotment or other ground is not given actually 

 free, an unusually low rent may be asked for it, and 

 the balance in this of advantage to the peasant is, of 

 course, so much payment in kind. 



Free cottages are not so much a custom in Ireland 

 as in some other parts of the kingdom ; but the plan 

 is more frequent in the eastern parts of the country, 

 Ulster and Leinster, than in Munster and Connaught. 

 There is an arrangement made in some parts of the 

 county of Limerick that those labourers who have free 

 cottages should agree, in consideration of this, to work 

 all the year round for a fixed wage. Another plan 

 adopted in some districts of Clare is for the peasant 

 " to work out " his rent by giving a fixed number 



