Agricultural Wages in June. 



223 



with the same month of 1898, excluding piece-work earnings 

 and extra allowances of all kinds. 



The general effect of these returns is to show that there 

 has been an upward movement in agricultural wages. The 

 particulars obtained refer to 149 poor law unions in the mid- 

 land, eastern, home, southern, and south-western counties ; the 

 number of agricultural labourers in these unions, according 

 to the census of 1891, being 248,173. Of this number it 

 appears that 62,064 were in unions where wages were is. a 

 week more than in June, 1898 ; 10,559 ^ n unions where wages 

 were is. 6d. a week more ; and 2,934 in unions where wages 

 were 2s. a week more ; the remaining* 172,616 labourers being 

 in unions where there was no change. The average rise, 

 spread over the whole number of labourers included in the 

 returns, was about 4d. a week per head. 



The greatest number of changes took place in the corn- 

 growing counties, comprising Cambridge, Essex, Lincoln, 

 Norfolk, and Suffolk. Out of the total of 75,557 agricultural 

 labourers in unions reported on in which wages were changed 

 28,540 (or 38 per cent.) were in the eastern counties, forming 

 nearly 29 per cent, of all the labourers covered by the returns 

 received from those counties. A larger proportion of the 

 labourers in the home counties, however, were in unions in 

 which a rise of wages was recorded; 17,808 out of the 

 30,8 [8 in these counties, or nearly 58 per cent, being in the 

 unions where wages were higher. 



The northern counties have been excluded from these 

 calculations, as the greater number of labourers are there 

 hired by the year or half-year. Wages in these counties in 

 1899 have been well maintained, and at some of the hiring 

 fairs there has been an upward tendency. At these fairs it 

 was reported that men farm servants, particularly the more 

 experienced, were generally scarce ; further, that women for 

 farmhouse work were almost impossible to obtain, and that 

 a good deal of dairy and house work would consequently have 

 to be done by the farmers' families. 



The rates of wages generally obtained for the half-year in 

 Cumberland, Westmorland, and Lancashire were as follows 

 (board and lodging in addition) : Best men £16 to £18 10s. 



