82 Labourers in Husbandry* 



that a man, his wife, and two or three children, if wheat 

 is^ their habitual food, will require ten gallons weekly ( 7l ). 

 1 When they live on bread, hard-working people ought to 

 1 have the best kind, as that will furnish the most nourishment. 

 IHowthen could a labourer and his family exist, upon wages 

 of from 65. to 95. per week, when wheat is from 8s. to 10s. 

 or 12,9. per bushel ( 7z )? The difference is compensated by 

 the poor-rates, a most exceptionable mode of making up the 

 deficiency; for labour would otherwise have found its own 

 level, and the labourer would have obtained the price of a 

 bushel and a half of wheat weekly. 



In Scotland, the rate of labour has increased beyond the 

 price of provisions. Prior to 1792, the average price of a 

 peck of oatmeal was Is. Id. and the average price of a day's 

 labour in summer, Is. }^d. which nearly corresponded with 

 the principle above stated ; but the average price of a peck 

 of oatmeal, in 1810, was Is. 3fd. whilst the average price of 

 a day's labour was Is. 10|e?. which shews, in a most satisfac- 

 tory manner, the very great improvement that has taken 

 place, in the lot of the labouring classes, in that part of the 

 united kingdom ( 73 ). 



6. The practice of giving labourers grain., fyc. at a cheap 

 rate. In order to compensate for the low rate of labour, 

 compared with the increased price of provisions, his late 

 Majesty, (George III.) who carried on farming operations to a 

 considerable extent, adopted the plan of allowing his labour- 

 ers flour at a fixed price, whatever wheat might sell for. 

 This benevolent system lias been imitated by several gentle- 

 men farmers, some of whom have allowed bread, and others 

 a daily quantity of milk, at moderate prices ( 74 ). The same 

 system is general in several of the western counties, as in 

 Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall, where the labourers have a 

 standing supply of bread-corn ; of wheat at 6s. and of bar- 

 ley at 3s. per bushel ( 7S ). 



7. Effects of high wages. In the wages of labour, as well 

 as in every thing else, moderation is desirable. It is re- 

 marked, that high wages have a tendency to throw labour- 

 ers out of employment, ps farmers in general, and even small 

 proprietors, are unable to give such wages ; hence they are 

 obliged to carry on their work with fewer hands, or to post- 

 pone improvements, /which otherwise they would have un- 



wdertaken. Nor is tnat all ; the labourers themselves suf- 

 fer by it, and so does the public. In the fens of Lincoln- 

 shire, wages have risen in harvest time, from 3s. Qd. to 7s. 



