192 THE DIVISION OF LABOUR 



strongest men are selected for such work, and seldom, 

 if ever, get less than the equivalent of 2 annas a day. 

 Reaping, however, is paid for in a different way. 

 During the day the owner of the field watches how 

 his labourers are working. In the evening he in- 

 variably gives each man three bundles of the cut crop, 

 but they are made smaller or larger according to his 

 merits.* The master by experience knows very 

 closely the equivalent of grain which each bundle 

 represents. The inferior class of workmen even can 

 usually make as much as i£ annas per diem. Those 

 who are most competent to express an opinion in such 

 matters believe that the remuneration of agricultural 

 labour has increased as much as 50 per cent, during 

 the last generation ; and there can, I think, be no doubt 

 that this class are on the whole much better off than 

 they used to be, and are on the whole perhaps in a 

 state of greater comfort than the lower stratum of 

 cultivators. The reason of this appears to be that 

 they are paid in a great measure in grain at cheap 

 village rates ; and as no bania will lend money to 

 such a man, they have escaped the incubus of debt. 

 Again, the opening up of the country and large public 

 works have done a great deal for the average labourer. 

 This year, for instance, thousands of them found 

 employment on the canal works at Nadrai, where the 

 Public Works Department have been recently dis- 

 tributing as much as half a lakh (Rs. 50,000) a month 

 in labour. Many, too, of this class have been em- 

 ployed by contractors in burning bricks or lime. On 

 the Nadrai works at present a good average labourer 

 can easily make as much as 3 annas per diem. During 

 my recent survey of the distressed villages on the 

 Kali Nadi and Burhganga, I found that a large pro- 

 portion of the able-bodied population was at work at 



* An interesting illustration of the way in which, under the 

 influence of ordinary economic motives, the employer modifies 

 custom to suit his own interest, though preserving the letter. 



