862 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



on a basis of communism. Souchon considers that hitherto the results 

 have been very small. 



Vine culture, after that of textile plants, has always been in 

 France the branch of agriculture most remunerative to the cultivator. 



Since the invasion of the phylloxera and the replanting of the 

 vineyards, requirements for successful culture have greatly increased, 

 one, as an instance, being the use of sulphur and of sulphate. There 

 is more work to be done, and that the farm servants may not suffer 

 in consequence many day labourers must also be employed. M. 

 Souchon points out the distinction between work in vineyards and 

 other work. 



The vineyard labourers have a hard time. They work from sun- 

 rise till sunset with an interval of three hours for rest. This repre- 

 sents twelve hours per day at the beginning, becoming less, however, 

 as the days shorten. Sundays are not exempt, and the only days of 

 rest are those when all work is prevented by rain. Some years ago 

 time-wages were the rule, but during the last seven or eight years 

 attempts have been made to introduce task-wages. The wages vary 

 in character. Vinedressers strangers to a locality are in the first 

 place lodged by the proprietor who employs them. They sleep in a 

 loft on a little straw, but such meagre hospitality can scarcely be con- 

 sidered remuneration. Sometimes their travelling expenses are paid 

 and they are given their evening meal and wine. But their payment 

 is generally made in money. Women grape-cutters receive but half 

 the sum paid to men, but the men are expected to carry the grapes. 



For both men and women payments differ with seasons, districts, 

 and even vineyards, but on an average, men receive four francs per 

 day and women two francs per day, a rate which seems sufficient to 

 allow of some saving by the recipients who for the greater part are 

 mountaineers accustomed to lead a very frugal life. Yet they often 

 spend much during their stay of three weeks or a month in the vine- 

 yards, and so have but little to take home. 



Other day labourers often remain connected with the same prop- 

 erty for months and even years but not continuously, for they are 

 only called on when there is extra work to be done. M. Auge-Laribc, 

 quoted by M. Souchon, calculates that such a workman is generally 

 employed 230 or 250 days annually. To them the care of the more 

 delicate work is entrusted. The men are employed in pruning, graft- 

 ing, sulphur and sulphate spraying of the vines; the women at easier 

 work, such as the tying-up of thfe vine shoots or, at the time of spray- 



