52 



Earnings of Agricultural .Labourers. 



[APRIL, 



their expenditure on rent, clothes, fuel, tobacco and alcohol, 

 their working hours, together with detailed descriptions of the 

 conditions of labour on certain farms. 



The average weekly earnings, including the value of all 

 allowances in kind, of ordinary agricultural labourers rose 

 between 1898 and 1902 in all parts of the United Kingdom 



as follows : — 



1902. 1898. 



s. d, s. d. 



England 17 5 16 9 



Wales 17 7 16 6 



Scotland 19 5 18 2 



Ireland 10 9 10 2 



The earnings were usually highest near the large industrial 

 or mining centres ; in England, the highest weekly average was 

 reached in Durham (22s. 2d.) ; in Wales, in Glamorgan (21s. 3d.) ; 

 in Scotland, in Renfrew and Lanark (22s. 2d.) ; and in Ireland, 

 in Down (13s). Oxfordshire showed the lowest average 

 weekly earnings in England, viz., 14s. 6d. ; the counties where 

 the earnings were next lowest were Norfolk (15s. 3d.), Glouces- 

 tershire (15s. 5d.), and Suffolk and Dorset (15s. 6d. each). The 

 county where the earnings were lowest in Wales was Cardigan- 

 shire (15s. 8d.), and in Scotland the minimum was reached in a 

 group comprising Shetland, Orkney, and Caithness (13s. yd.). 



The increase in the wages of agricultural labourers during the 

 past fifty years has been very marked. Information has been 

 obtained from sixty-nine farms in England and Wales of the 

 cash wages actually paid to ordinary agricultural labourers, 

 exclusive of piecework, harvest money, overtime, and allowances 

 in kind, which shows that the weekly wages increased from 

 9s. 3jd. in 1850 to 14s. yd. in 1903 in England and Wales. In 

 the case of Scotland returns were available from only six farms, 

 but they indicate that wages in 1850 were rather less than 

 •one-half of what they are at the present time, while returns 

 from ten farms in Ireland show a rise from 5s. io^d. in 1850 to 

 10s. 4id. in 1903, an increase of 4s. 6d., or y&6 per cent. 



Examples of the class of food eaten by farm labourers are 

 given as illustrations of the customs prevailing in different 

 districts, and it is estimated that the average weekly value of 

 food consumed, including articles purchased and those produced 

 at home, by a man, his wife, and four children, is 13s. 6|d. in 



