MIGRATION OF IRISH LABOUR. 149 



shire, and north Cambridgeshire; some also go to a 

 few districts in the counties of Cumberland, Shropshire, 

 Nottinghamshire, Rutland, Leicestershire, Northampton- 

 shire, Middlesex, and Hertfordshire. A very few are said 

 to be sometimes found in parts of Worcestershire, Bedford- 

 shire, Buckinghamshire, Surrey, and Sussex. In former 

 years it is said they came in considerably larger numbers 

 to some of the counties referred to ; and reports from 

 Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Huntingdonshire, Kent, and Here- 

 fordshire state that they used to come there, but have 

 now ceased to do so, chiefly owing to the introduction 

 of machinery at harvest, and also owing to the smaller 

 acreage of grain crops grown. It is not uncommon to 

 find men going to several counties in succession during 

 the season. For instance, a number go to Derbyshire 

 for temporary employment before the corn is ripe in 

 Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. A good many men manage to 

 get two harvests by going farther north when they have 

 completed one in a more southern county. The migratory 

 labourers from Donegal chiefly go to Northumberland or 

 Scotland. A few start for Scotland early in the year ; some, 

 both men and women, arrive in time for the potato planting 

 in Ayrshire, the Lothians, and a few other districts where 

 potatoes are largely grown ; but the majority do not migrate 

 until the summer, some starting in June for turnip-thinning, 

 hay-making, and lifting early potatoes. While many start 

 in August for harvest, some remain for potato - lifting, 

 chiefly in the great potato-growing districts of the Lothians, 

 and the counties of Forfar and Perth, and a few men stay 

 still longer for storing turnips. Irish labourers in Scotland 

 are usually engaged by the day, though sometimes they do 

 piecework. At harvest their engagement is usually a weekly 

 one, though sometimes it is for an agreed period for the whole 

 harvest, i.e. four or five weeks. The counties in Scotland 

 in which both Irish men and women are employed are Ayr, 

 Wigtown, Lanark, Midlothian, East Lothian, West Lothian, 

 Forfar, Perth, and the eastern border counties of Berwick, 

 Roxburgh, Peebles, and Selkirk. They are most largely 

 employed in the counties of Edinburgh, Haddington, and 

 Linlithgow, where a large extent of land is devoted to corn 

 growing. Next to the Lothians they are most largely 

 employed at harvest near Glasgow, and in the eastern border 

 counties. In the county of Ayr, where large quantities of 

 early potatoes are grown, a considerable number of Irish 

 men and women are employed in the months of June, 

 July, and August, lifting them. They are employed in large 

 companies by the dealers, who purchase the growing 

 potatoes in the ground. The dealers often communicate 

 with a man in Ireland (whom the labourers call a ' gaffer '), 

 who collects and takes a gang of young women over for 

 this work. The ' gaffer ' accompanies them from farm 

 to farm, and makes all arrangements as to travelling, etc. 



