Examination of Imported Butter. 



97 



Agricultural Labour in April. 



The Agricultural Correspondent to the Labour Depart- 

 ment of the Board of Trade reports, in the Labour 

 Gazette for May, that notwithstanding a number of wet 

 and stormy days in April, which interfered with outdoor 

 spring work, agricultural labourers were generally well 

 employed. In the Northern Counties, where outdoor work 

 appears to have been a good deal interrupted, the great 

 majority of the farm servants are hired by the year or half- 

 year, and so wet w T eather does not affect their employment ; 

 but in districts where weekly or daily engagements are the 

 rule it is now frequently said that, owing to the difficulty of 

 getting and retaining men on the farms, employers have to 



find their men regular work and emplov them " wet and 

 dry/' 



Changes in the wages of ordinary agricultural labourers 

 amounting to arise of is. per w r eek, took place in April in 

 certain districts in the counties of Cambridge, Essex, Herts 

 (in some parishes 2S.), Hants, Leicester, Norfolk, Oxford, 

 Somerset, and Suffolk. In a good many districts in East 

 Yorkshire a rise of is. 6d. a week took place. In a few 

 'districts there was a rise of is., and in some of 2S. or even 3s. 

 Rises of is. to is. 6d. a week are also reported in districts in 

 Devonshire, Lancashire, and Kent, In one district in the 

 last-named county the rise was from is. 6d. to 2s. 6d. A rise 

 >of is. 6d. a week is reported in a district in Sussex, and of 2s. 

 'in a district in Bedfordshire. The changes in wages in most 

 -of these districts represent actual increases, as compared with 

 the corresponding period of last year. 



Analyses of Imported Butter. 



In the Journal for December last [p. 370] a statement 

 -was given showing the results up to March, 1898, of the 

 -examination of samples of imported butter taken at the ports 

 of entry by the Customs authorities, and analysed at the 



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