Agricultural Wages 117 



regularity of the employment. It is im- 

 possible on this occasion to go into these 

 difficulties of comparison, and I only 

 mention them to show that in the calcula- 

 tions made they have not been overlooked 

 or forgotten. 



Again, in comparing agricultural wages 

 with other wages, over long periods, we 

 have to take account of changes in the 

 nature of the occupations. In agriculture, 

 for centuries the kinds of work remain the 

 same. Down to quite recent times, in 

 some parts, men and women might be 

 seen reaping wheat with the sickle and 

 cutting the corn high on the stalk exactly 

 as Rogers describes the work in the Middle 

 Ages, and similarly there was threshing 

 with the flail, and so on. But in other 

 industries there have been revolutionary 

 changes in all departments. But even in 

 the non-agricultural industries there are 



