SOME PROBLEMS OF AGRICULTURAL LABOR 863 



ing, the refilling of the cans. As women are so poorly paid, proprietors 

 are often tempted to employ them instead of men. For this reason, 

 the men protested energetically against the employment of women 

 and often succeeded in preventing it. 



Ordinarily, to get through the tasks allotted them more quickly, 

 the vinedressers unite in groups called bricoles led by a chief workman 

 called the mouss&gne. This collective work, like that of the woodmen 

 in the forests, has much aided the development of syndicates. 



The working hours of day labourers in the vineyards are short, 

 being seldom more than eight. Their wages kept constantly rising 

 from 1820 until the appearance of the phylloxera, and then from 1875 

 they began to go down, until in five or ten years they reached a pro- 

 portion of about 50 per cent, and they would have been lower still 

 but for the exodus of many of the workers. With the replanting of 

 the vineyards better times came, but no years have ever been com- 

 parable to those between 1850 and 1875 f r prosperity. In 1900 and 

 the years following there was another fall in wages owing to the failure 

 in demand. In April, 1903, hard frosts destroyed the vintage of the 

 year, and employers dismissed many of their workmen, while they 

 abruptly cut down the wages for the others by 30 or 40 per cent. In 

 Herault M. Souchon believes that he is near the truth in stating that 

 in 1913 the ordinary daily wages in winter were 2 fr. 50, and in sum- 

 mer from 2 fr. 50 to 3 fr. 50. These figures seem very low when we 

 remember that there are frequent intervals in vineyard work. Besides, 

 the southern labourers generally live in the cities or large villages, thus 

 losing the advantages of a completely country life, one of which is the 

 profit made on pig or poultry rearing. Their rent too is high, being 

 calculated by M. Auge-Laribe at an average of 80 to 120 frs. Lastly, 

 the continual cultivation of one kind of crop is prejudicial to the 

 interests of the south through the risk of overproduction, and it is 

 also one cause of the higher cost of living. Bread, for instance, is a 

 much heavier item of expense to the vinedresser in the south than in 

 any other part of France. 



On the 1 5th of August, 1903, a first congress of vinedressers and 

 labourers held at Beziers comprised 31 syndicates. In the following 

 November the first strike of any importance was declared, and 

 resulted much to the satisfaction of the workmen. In January, 1904, 

 agitation increased, spreading from Herault to Aube and Pyrenees- 

 Orientales, and in April and May of the same year to Bouches-du- 

 Rhone. According to the statistics of the Labour Office, more than 



