132 BRITISH RURAL LIFE AND LABOUR. 



counties been computed at 2, 125. In all classes in the 

 tables, the wages and earnings are those of men in receipt 

 of full men's wages. In the table (see previous page 131) 

 the maximum and minimum summer and winter rates 

 of weekly cash wages of the ordinary labourers regularly 

 attached to the staff of a farm, who have no food provided 

 in the farmhouses on working days, are given for each 

 county, also the predominant rates of weekly cash wages 

 and the estimated total weekly earnings, including all 

 extra cash payments and the value of allowances in kind. 

 In counties where the predominant rate of wages in winter 

 is lower than in the summer, it has been reckoned, for the 

 purpose of arriving at the rate for the whole year, that 

 the ratio of summer to winter weeks is as 3 to 2. 



A note attached to the table in the Board of Trade 

 report says : 



" It has already been explained that, generally speaking, 

 ordinary labourers do not earn much extra in cash over 

 and above their regular weekly wages, as little or no piece- 

 work is done by men in constant employment, and the 

 extra payments for hay and corn harvests are generally 

 comparatively small if any. It will be seen from the preced- 

 ing table that in ten of the thirty-two counties the average 

 weekly earnings do not exceed the average of the summer 

 and winter rates of weekly cash wages by more than six- 

 pence, while the excess amounts to a shilling or more in 

 five counties only." 



The next subject of interest in connection with the 

 wages question in Ireland will be concerned with the 

 earnings of " hired men " that is, of those who are 

 hired for periods, and lodged and boarded in the farm- 

 houses. This custom of boarding and lodging farm 

 servants exists mostly in Ulster ; but, as our table of 

 information will indicate, there are " lodgers " of this 

 description in every county. The following notes in 

 reference to this class of labourers are of importance as 

 explaining how the information has been obtained : 



" It has not been found possible," the report states 

 (as was also the case in Wales), " to ascertain what is the 

 predominant rate paid to the hired men in each county, as the 

 range of wages is frequently so wide. Too strict a com- 

 parison should not be made between the minimum and 

 maximum in one county and another, because in one case the 

 figures may refer to extreme rates paid, which may possibly 

 be quite exceptional, and in another case such extreme rates 



