56 



GENERAL AGRIC ULTUiUL NOTES. 



[Jui.e 1895. 



was asked to obtain a sample direct from the co^YS, which sample 

 corresponded with that first analysed. Dr. Carter Bell then 

 visited the farm himself, and found five half-starved cows, which 

 were nothing more than animated bundles of bones. The cows 

 jwere milked in his presence, and the analyses of the milk again 

 corresponded with the former analysis. Dr. Carter Bell observes 

 that it must be perfectly patent to all that the milk supply of the 

 United Kingdom is not to be brought down to correspond with 

 such samples as be has named. From the hundreds of samples 

 he has himself seen taken from the cows, and subsequently 

 analysed, he finds the average composition of the Cheshire milk 

 to be :— Total solids, 13-32 ; sohds not fat, 9 31 ; fat, 4-01. 



It is interesting to compare this with a report made by a 

 chemist to one of the large London dairies upon the milk 

 supplied during the last 12 years, which represents the results of 

 analyses of over 120,000 samples. The average composition of 

 this large number of samples was as follows : — Total solids, 12-9 ; 

 solids not fat, 8-8 ; fat, 41. 



Agricultural Hirings. 



The Labour Gazette of May contains some information relating 

 to the agricultural hirings in Northumberland, Durham, and 

 Scotland. At the Northumberland Hirings, the wages obtained 

 are reported to have been generally similar to those of last year. 

 Men who remained in their places were taken on at the old 

 rates, and new comers who could provide women workers com- 

 manded the same sum, but single men had sometimes to take a 

 slightly smaller rate at some markets. At the Darlington 

 Hirings, men who received 17s. a week in 1894 received 16s. 

 this year, but no reduction was made in the wages of those who 

 received 16s. last year. 



In Northumberland and Durham, the engagement is, it is 

 stated, usually a yearly one in the case of men, and the em- 

 ployers are bound to pay them the agreed weekly wages in any 

 circumstances, no matter how long the farm servant may be 

 incapacitated by illness, unless it be of a permanent character. 

 -Women are also engaged by the year, and, although their 

 employers are not bound to pay them for days on which they do 

 not work, they are bound to pay them their agreed wages for 

 any days on which they choose to offer themselves for work. 



As regards the half-yearly hirings in Lanarkshire, Selkirk, 

 and Stirlingshire, the rates of wages obtained were, it appears, 

 generally similar to those obtained in the same period of 1894. 



The rate of wages prevailing at the Northumberland yearly . 

 hirings is reported to have been from 15s. to I7s. At Hexham, 

 19s. to 21s. was paid, and 17s. to 20s. at Newcastle-on-Tyne. 

 At the latter place the dominant rate of wage was stated to be 

 18s. (jd. In the Newcastle district, there are a number of dairy 



