the Second Letter of Inquiry. 113 



% 

 Christopher Morley, Esq. 



I BEG leave to meniion a circumstance that is very injurious to the industrious 

 farmer ; that is, the inequality of the measure of corn. Farmers who wish to make 

 use of the Winchester bushel experience great difficulty in disposing of their pro- 

 duce to the best advantage, as they are generally scouted by the corn buyers, and 

 are obliged to procure bushels of thirty -three and thirty-four quarts, to the great 

 loss of themselves and families. If I am not mistaken, a great many of the corn- 

 factors and mal.sters, who buy corn by that extra measure, sell out by the Winches- 

 ter bushel. It would undoubtedly be of great utility to the farmer, if the legislature 

 would take this national business into their most serious consideration, and esta- 

 blish one standard measure throughout the whole kingdom. 



jfohn White, Esq. 



The greatest disadvantage this division of the county suffers, is the excessive 

 price of labour. In the year 1790 we paid from tos. to 12^. per acre for corn 

 reaping, and in the year 1803 the average price was about £1. \s. per acre. In 

 the year 1790, the price of labourers per day, in the winter and spring seasons, 

 was from is. 30?. to is. 6d. In the year 1803, ^'^^ sanie labourers had 2s. 6d. 

 per day, and some of the better sort of them would not work for that price, without 

 spme allowance of beer. Now it is a well known truth, that within i^ miles of 

 this place (in any direction where the high country begins) their corn is reaped, 

 stacked, thatched, and in fact completely harvested, for considerably less than half 

 the price we pay here for the reaping only, and the labourers there, in winter, work 

 for nearly half the price, and a full hour longer in a day than they do here ; yet 

 notwithstanding this disparity of wages, they support their families with more 

 credit, and considerably less parochial assistance, than they do in the levels of Lm- 

 colnsbire. There is but one reason to be assigned for it, and that is the extreme 

 dissipation and extravagance of the lower order of people. 



A very few years back, a bill was introduced into the House of Commons, to 

 prevent the cutting of navigable canals, &c. during the harvest month ; an i the 

 throwing out of that bill was matter of serious injury to the farmers ot this country, 

 and to some others likewise, where the works of canals and embankments are 

 carried on. I do not recollect the name of the honourable member who opyosea 



VOL. V. Q 



