230 



GENEEAL AGE ICULTUEAL NOTES. 



[Dec. 1894. 



employment was generally fair, but men in irregular work were 

 reported in districts in Oxfordshire, Bedfordshire, Buckingham- 

 shire, Kent, and Hertfordshii'e. 



In the Eastern Counties, employment appears to have been 

 very fairly good in Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire, particularly 

 in the root-producing districts. Men in Norfolk, Suffolk, and 

 Cambridgeshire were reported out of employment in certain 

 villages. 



Employment in the Western Counties appears to have been 

 normal in the counties of Gloucestershire, Monmouthshire, Here- 

 fordshire, Devonshire, and Cornwall, but in parts of Wiltshire, 

 Dorsetshire, and Somersetshire employment has been irregular. 



Weekly wages are reported to have generally dropped in 

 October in all parts of the country in rural districts, except the 

 Northern Counties, where they only fell in a few localities. 



In some cases these changes were partly seasonal, but in most 

 cases wages had fallen lower than they were at the corresponding 

 period of 1893. 



The fall of wages was most general in the corn growing coun- 

 ties of Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex. 

 In the first-named county they are reported to have frequently 

 fallen from 2s. 6tZ. or 2s. 3d to 2s. In the winter of 1898, 2s. Scl 

 a day was usually the minimum wage. A w^age of 2s. a day has 

 not been so general in the county for six years. Wages in North 

 Cambridgeshire had in many cases fallen from 13s. to 12s., and 

 in South Cambridgeshire from lis. to 10s. 



In Essex wages were generally reduced Is. a week in October, 

 and in some cases 2s., the usual rate varying from 10s. to 128., 

 but in the Braintree district some labourers were receiving 9s. 

 and even 8s. 



The Norfolk wages were lis. and 10s. In Suffolk wages were 

 generally reduced to 10s., and in one village to 9s. 



Wages in Wiltshire had in a number of districts been reduced 

 from lis. to 10s., and at Avebury they were 9s. 



