6 4 



Agricultural Wages in 1900. 



rise of 8d. was recorded in the districts where a change took 

 place, but the number affected in 1900 was considerably 

 greater than in earlier years. Calculated on the total number 

 of agricultural labourers in England and Wales according to 

 the census of 1891, the rise per head in 1900 amounted to 

 3jd. per week. 



By far the greater number of the changes occurred, as 

 usual, in the Eastern and Midland counties, which are the 

 principal corn-growing districts of England. 



It may be of interest to give for certain counties in 

 England, where the earnings were highest and lowest in 

 1898, the approximate increase in total weekly earnings of 

 ordinary agricultural labourers in 1900, as compared with 

 1898 (the year for which earnings are given in the Report on 

 Agricultural Wages and Earnings. Cd. 346). It has been 

 assumed, for the purpose of arriving at the total earnings for 

 1 900, that the difference between cash wages and total earnings 

 (including extra cash payments and the value of allowances 

 in kind) for 1898, which was based on returns from farmers, 

 was the same in 1900 in each county. 



I. — Counties showing highest average earnings in 1898 : — 



Average weekly earnings 

 throughout the year. 

 1900. 1898. 

 s. d. s. d. 



Durham ----- 22 4 20 9 



Northumberland - - - - 20 9 20 2 



Derbyshire - - - - - 20 6 1911 



II. — Counties showing lowest average earnings in 1898 : — 



Average weekly earnings 

 throughout the year. 

 1900. 1898. 

 s. d. s. d. 



Dorsetshire • - - - - 154 l 4 9 



Oxfordshire - - - - - 151 14 8 



Suffolk 15 10 14 5 



As regards Scotland, there was, generally, an upward 

 movement in 1900 m the wages of all classes of farm servants. 

 At the spring yearly hiring fairs in the Border counties and 

 the Lothians an increase in wages of from about 20s. to 50s. 

 a year was given in a number of cases. The wages of 



