1904.] Agricultural and Harvest Wages. 503 



harvest work was done by the regular staffs of the farms in a 

 number of localities. In some districts of the Eastern counties 

 several men failed to secure harvest engagements, and had to 

 content themselves with turnip hoeing and other work at ordi- 

 nary rates of wages. 



The average duration of the harvest on the 97 farms covered 

 by the returns was 24 working days. The corresponding figure 

 for 1902, when the harvest was prolonged by unfavourable 

 weather, was 33 days. In 1901 the average was 24 working 

 days. In that year, as in the present one, the weather was most 

 favourable and the crops were secured quickly. Returns were 

 received relating to the harvest of 1903, but as the harvest was 

 so protracted owing to bad weather, during which labourers 

 were in many instances employed at other farm work on ordi- 

 nary wages, satisfactory averages could not be compiled. 



The earnings were highest (£7 5s. yd. per man) in the Eastern 

 counties, which include the great corn-growing counties of 

 Huntingdon, Cambridge, Lincoln, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex. 

 The payments in this group of counties ranged from about 

 £6 10s. to £&, though more was earned by some men on piece- 

 work in the Fen districts. In parts of Norfolk and in Suffolk 

 and Essex the usual system of payment is for the labourer to 

 contract with the farmer to perform the harvest work for a fixed 

 sum, irrespective of the number of days occupied. A short 

 harvest, as in 1901 and this year, is thus a profitable one for the 

 labourer, as he gets back to ordinary farm work at weekly 

 wages sooner than in years such as 1902 and 1903, when harvest 

 was lengthened by unfavourable weather. 



In the Midland counties the average harvest earnings, accord- 

 ing to the returns received, were ^5 13s. 6d. per man, or 

 £1 12s. id. less than in the Eastern counties, while 392 farm 

 labourers in the Southern and South-Western counties earned 

 on an average £4 17s. 2d. each only. In the Midland and 

 Southern groups of counties the systems of payment are fre- 

 quently on a time-work basis, and harvest earnings fluctuate 

 from year to year according to the duration of the harvest. In 

 1902, when the harvest was long, the average earnings for the 

 Midland labourers were £6 14s. nd., and for those in the 

 Southern counties £$ 17s., or £1 4s. 5d. and 19s. iod. more 

 respectively than in 1904. 



