150 BRITISH RURAL LIFE AND LABOUR. 



In many districts the same men often seek work on the 

 same farms for a number of years in succession. Employers 

 frequently find accommodation for the men, and also for 

 the women, in barns or temporary bothies, though, if the 

 farms are near towns, the Irish labourers often find their 

 own lodgings. In the bothies they usually have the use 

 of wooden bedsteads, blankets, and coals. The employers 

 sometimes supply milk and potatoes, and the men or women 

 buy tea, bread, and oatmeal extra, but frequently the 

 farmers provide all food, which may consist of tea, bread, 

 butter, eggs, fish, and sometimes meat. In recent years 

 the introduction of the self-binding machines has con- 

 siderably decreased the employment of Irish hands at 

 harvest, both in Scotland and England." 



