EXTRAS AND ALLOWANCES IN KIND. 129 



of days' service, when required, in return, the number 

 of days being generally about thirty in the year. 

 Reckoned at the usual rate, the labour given free would 

 be equivalent to something like a shilling a week for 

 the cottage or perhaps a little less, a very low rent, 

 so that the difference, if any, between it and the actual 

 rental value would practically amount to an " allowance 

 in kind." 



When we come to the value of cottage rents in Ireland, 

 we find rather an extensive range from the hovel 

 for it can be little else of sixpence to the better-class 

 dwelling of two shillings a week, the higher rents 

 being for houses near towns. So far as we know, the 

 sixpenny cottage is an institution unknown in England. 

 Mr. Wilson Fox says : 



" Herds are usually provided with cottages free, and 

 married men in charge of cattle and horses often get them, 

 though not so frequently as herds. In addition to getting 

 free cottages, herds often get other payments in kind, 

 such as tillage and grazing land, turf, hay, milk, the right 

 to graze a certain number of animals, including cattle, 

 horses, sheep, and to turn out pigs and geese. In some 

 districts in the province of Connaught, and also in parts 

 of County Clare (Munster), they are often paid entirely 

 or almost entirely in kind. Married men in charge of 

 horses and cattle are not infrequently given turf, milk, 

 and potato land." 



Yet another arrangement prevailing in the lowest- 

 wage districts of Ireland notably in County Clare 

 is to give the peasant about half an acre of land and 

 free grazing for a cow as part payment ; and in such 

 cases the cash wages are frequently as low as six shillings 

 a week. The nearest parallel to this is the condition 

 of things forty years ago in the worst-paid district of 

 Somersetshire the neighbourhood of Wooton Courtney, 

 elsewhere referred to in this volume. 



9 



