March 1897.] GENERAL AGRICULTURAL NOTES. 



393 



GENERAL AGRICULTURAL NOTES. 

 Agricultural Hirings in Scotland in 1896. 



According to the Labour Gazette, the rates of wages agreed 

 upon at the various hiring markets, held in Scotland between 

 August and December 1896, were generally the same as at 

 the corresponding markets in 1895. Information has been 

 received by the Labour Department of the Board of Trade of 

 the rates of wages paid at 45 hiring markets. In a number of 

 instances it is reported that employers strove to effect a slight 

 reduction in wages, but in almost all cases where farm servants 

 remained on in their old places the old rates of wages were 

 obtained, though in some instances, in the case of those 

 changing their situations, farmers succeeded in bringing about 

 a reduction of from 10s. to 20s. for the half-year. In most 

 districts women servants were "scarce, and, on the whole, their 

 wages tended in an upward direction. 



At the yearly hirings in Fifeshire, at Cupar, Dunfermline, 

 and St. Andrews, there was scarcely any change in the rates 

 of wages compared with those obtained at the corresponding 

 markets in 1895. The wages of first and second horsemen for 

 the year generally ranged from 26£. to 33£., and those of third 

 horsemen from 24L to 29/. At the yearly hirings in Perthshire, 

 at Alyth, Blairgowrie, Crieff, and Perth, a good many ploughmen 

 changing their places had to submit to a reduction of 11., or 

 sometimes a little more, for the half-year. In the county of 

 Kinross a good many farmers hire at the Fifeshire markets in 

 October, and the rates paid in the county are generally about 

 the same as those paid in Fifeshire. In the counties of Aberdeen, 

 Banff, Dumfries, Elgin, Forfar, Kincardine, Lanark, Nairn, and 

 Stirling, the wages at the half-yearly hirings generally varied, 

 in the case of first and second horsemen, from 121. to 161. for the 

 half-year. 



In addition to the rates of yearly and half-yearly wages 

 quoted, married men get a free house, together with a small 

 garden in some cases ; also allowances of milk, oatmeal and 

 potatoes, and coals free, or carted free. Unmarried men are 

 lodged and boarded in the farm houses, or else lodged in 

 bothies or with married servants, and given allowances of 

 food. 



The Malting and Seed Barley Competition of 1896. 



The Board of Agriculture have received a copy of the report 

 of the judges at the Special Competition of Malting and Seed 

 Barleys held in connection with the Brewers' Exhibition in 

 October last. 



