72 



Fifty Years' Agricultural Wages. 



possible from the books of tenant farmers, because the wages 

 paid on the home farms of large estates are not unfrequently 

 somewhat higher than in the surrounding districts, and they 

 also tend to be less susceptible to change on account of low 

 prices and unfavourable seasons. Of the returns, 31 have 

 been furnished by tenant farmers and 18 by landowners o 

 their agents. More difficulties were experienced in the north 

 and in Wales, and it was finally found possible to summarise 

 the returns so far as regards 33 farms only, of which nine in 

 the midland counties, six in the eastern, and thirteen in the 

 southern and south-western counties, permitted of a subsidiary 

 grouping into these three districts. 



These statistics, summarised in five-year periods, are 

 follows : — 



A verage weekly cash wages of ordinary labourers on certain 



farms. 



Period. 



Midland 

 Counties 

 (9 farms). 



Eastern 

 Counties 

 (6 farms). 



Southern and 

 South-western 

 Counties 

 (13 farms). 



England 

 and Wales 

 (33 farms). 





s. d. 



s. d. 



s. d. 



, a. 



1850-54- 



10 6h 



9 0 



8 8£ 



9 8 



1855-59- 



11 4 



11 3 



10 2 



IO Ili 



- 



1860-64- 



11 9 



10 l\ 



IO 2.\ 



I I O 



1865-69- - - - 



12 4h 



11 4i 



IO II 



11 9 



1870-74- 



13 0^ 



12 8* 



11 5 



12 7 



1875-79- 



14 2h 



13 6| 



12 1 



13 5 



1880-84- 



13 * 



12 7h 



12 1^ 



13 1 



1885-89- - - 



13 4 



11 5 



11 11^ 



12 8 



1890-94- 



13 9h 



11 7 



12 4h 



13 ii 



1895-99- 



13 11 



11 8 



12 6^ 



13 3i 



The full details published in the return show that wages 

 were generally lowest from 1849 to 1 853, a time of gieat 

 agricultural depression immediately preceding the period 

 of higher prices during the Crimean War. For England and 

 Wales the lowest average weekly wage in the half-century 

 was 9s. i|d. in 1851 ; two farms reporting 6s. only in the 

 early fifties, while there were several returns of 7s. and 8s. at 

 that time. 



Between the years 1850 and 1899 the rates of wages paid 

 on the 33 farms increased by 48 per cent.; if, however, the 



