Fifty Years' Agricultural Wages. 



73 



higher rate prevailing in 1855 be taken^for comparison (wages 

 being very low in 1850), the rise is 22 per cent. Or, taking 

 the averages of the quinquennial periods 1850-54 and 1895-9, 

 there was shown a rise of 3s. jhd. per week, i.e., 37 h per cent. 



After the early fifties, there was, speaking generally, a 

 fairly steady rise in wages until 1874-78, a period of great 

 industrial and commercial activity, when wages were also af- 

 fected by the agricultural lock-out in 1874. The highest point 

 reached was 13s. 6Jd. in 1877, afigure which was not surpassed 

 until 1899. The year 1878 was the last of this very high wage 

 period in agriculture, and with the disastrous year 1879 

 wages began to fall, the decline continuing until 1887 

 {average, 12s. 6Jd.). There has since the latter year been a 

 rise, broken about 1893-96, when wages were even lower in 

 certain counties than they had been since the sixties. After 

 1897 a rather rapid increase is noticeable, attributed chiefly 

 to the scarcity of labour felt in many places owing to the com- 

 petition of the industrial districts. 



In j 899 the average of the 33 farms amounted to 13s. 8-Jd. 

 The highest averages for the three districts were 14s. 4d. in 

 the midlands in 1875 and 1877, 14s. in the eastern counties 

 in 1874, and 12s. njd. in the south and south-west in 1899. 



Notes as to the allowances in kind given to the labourers 

 in addition to their weekly cash wages were recorded, and 

 any variations in such allowances between the earlier and 

 later years were also mentioned. Speaking generally, there 

 has been very little change either in the nature or quantity of 

 these allowances during the half-century. 



It is noticeable that in the eastern counties, which are the 

 chief corn-growing districts, the rates of wages have varied 

 considerably more than in the other two groups, where cattle 

 and sheep are more generally bred and fattened, and dairying 

 and mixed farming carried on. The wages in these eastern 

 counties tend very decidedly to follow the price of grain. 

 This is observable to a much less extent in the midlands, 

 where corn crops are a less important factor, and to a still 

 smaller extent in the south and south-west. 



Comparing 1895-99 with 1850-54, the statistics show that 

 agricultural wages have risen by 32 per cent, in the midland 



