360 



Harvest Wages in 1899. 



In the fen districts in Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire 

 the harvest is usually clone by piecework, This year the 

 men were able to get through their work very quickly, but 

 fewer were employed than last year, when the heavy crops 

 were much laid, and the self-binders could not be so gene- 

 rally used. In other parts of Lincolnshire and Cambridge- 

 shire, in addition to the piecework system, a daily, weekly, 

 or monthly wage is paid. Thus, on a farm in the Louth 

 Union of Lincolnshire, where about 40 men were at work at 

 harvest, some were employed at piecework at 5s. 6d. to 7s. 

 per acre, each man taking 20 to 25 acres, while some were 

 paid £7 a month, and others 5s. a day. 



Turning to the Midland, Home, and Southern and South 

 Western counties, in addition to the systems of payment 

 already referred to, the custom is in some districts to pay the 

 ordinary weekly wages, and, in addition, to give a bonus at 

 the end of harvest, or else to pay overtime money ; or to pay 

 double the weekly wages during harvest ; or to give extra 

 wages for a month certain, and then pay the ordinary weekly 

 wages. A large employer of labour in Northamptonshire 

 writes that he paid the following rates: — "4s. 8d. per day 

 during harvest month, but nearly all the men have piece 

 work (cutting with the machine, mowing or tying), at which 

 they earned from 5s. 6d. to 7s. per day, so that they received 

 from £6 to £j 6s. for the month." Extra money, in addition 

 to the usual weekly cash wages, was paid for harvest work 

 done before and after the month. 



The Northern counties have been excluded from the 

 returns, as the majority of the men there are hired by the 

 year or half-year, paid an "upstanding wage," that is, in 

 wet weather and sickness, and given no extra money for 

 harvest, though they are often supplied with extra food and 

 drink. Except in Northumberland, where the system of 

 engagement closely resembles that in the Border counties 

 and the Lothians in Scotland, the married men attached to 

 the staff of a farm are usually paid extra money wages, and 

 often given food and drink. Extra hands in these districts, 

 both English and Irish, get from £4. to £6 a month, fre- 

 quently with an allowance of food and drink. In some of 



