Fifty Years' Agricultural Wages. 



7i 



took 631,957 cwts., and the Channel Islands 85,446 cwts. 

 Oil-seed cake and other animal foods to the value of £200,336 

 were sent principally to Germany, Holland, and other Euro- 

 pean countries. Confectionery, jams, and preserved fruits to 

 the amount of 30,939,800 lbs., valued at £606,867, were 

 largely consigned to British colonies and possessions, 

 especially the Cape, India, and Australasia. The quantity 

 sent to foreign countries was valued at £165,075. Glue, sizs, 

 and gelatine, and bladders and sausage casings, were 

 exported to the value of £127,884 and £140,358 respectively, 

 and straw-plaiting to the value of £54,234. 



Among other articles exported of British production 

 hitherto not separately enumerated were — hair (£104.225) 

 horns and hoofs (£47,934) hide-cuttings (£78,165), bones 

 (£29,718), feathers (£25,275), plants, etc. (£37,799), basket- 

 ware (£13,93;), eggs (£7,372). 



Fifty Years' Agricultural Wages in England 

 and Wales. 



In connection with the inquiry instituted by the Board of 

 Trade into the rates of wages and earnings of agricultural 

 labourers in the United Kingdom, published last year as a 

 parliamentary paper [Cd. 346], information was sought 

 directly from farmers as to the changes that had taken place 

 in the wages paid by them during the past half-century. 



The difficulty of obtaining figures extending over such a 

 period was naturally very great. Persons whose families 

 have occupied a farm for so long a time are not numerous, 

 while those who have also kept accurate books are still more 

 exceptional. Information was, however, obtained from 46 

 farms |in England and three in Wales as to the rates of 

 weekly cash wages paid during a long series of years to 

 ordinary agricultural labourers in receipt of full men's wages, 

 exclusive of payments for piecework, or of extra payments 

 during hay and corn harvests and for overtime, or of the 

 value of any allowances in kind. 



Endeavour was made to obtain these records as far as 



