7U = 50S 
The Agricultural Labourer. 
Harvest wages. 
Reduction of 
number of 
hands required 
rather than 
that of wages 
brought about 
by use of reap- 
insc-machines. 
Earnings of 
labourers still 
very large in 
harvest. 
of this is the largely increased number of butchers' shops in tl 
rural districts. Quantities of beef and mutton are now so 
weekly in many small country villages, where formerly (ai 
within the memory of men below the middle age) the butchei 
stock was represented by a very meagre supply of pork alone. 
in harvest the full energies of the labourer are directed towar 
making up arrears of rent, and getting together a little moH' 
for the bills of the past year. In the eastern counties, whe 
high harvest wages are paid, the labourer is accustomed to d 
pend entirely upon this season for all his extra payments ; 
other times living up to the full amount of his wages, whatev 
they may be, and taking no thought for the morrow. 
It is true that the reaping-machine is now an almost inv 
riable accompaniment upon all farms in Great Britain, but i 
use has rather had the effect of reducing the number of han 
required by the farmer for the gathering in of his corn than 
curtailing the earnings of those employed. Indeed, at no tin 
have higher wages been earned by the regular labourers of t 
farm than since the introduction of this implement. In t 
great corn-growing districts of Great Britain the period of ha 
vest is always one of considerable anxiety, owing to the una 
tainties of our climate ; and the exigencies of the farmer oft 
lead to immense wages being paid at this time of the year, 
the Fen districts of Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire a stroi 
man will consider himself very ill-paid in harvest if he cann 
earn 95. or IO5. a day in following the reaper, and 7s. or i 
when housing the corn. 
Lest, however, I should be accused of exaggeration on tl 
point, I give the actual harvest earnings of a labourer in th 
locality in the autumn of the present year (1877), merely pi 
raising that the family consisted of a man ; his wife ; a girl, ag 
16 ; a boy, aged 14 ; another, aged 11 ; and a small chi 
about 9. I suppress the real name, but I guarantee the accura 
of the figures, which are taken from my own books : — 
£ «. d. 
John Jones' reaping and tying bill .. .. 15 l6 2 
Do. carting account 1 18 114 
Thatching do 4 16 1 
Paid boys driving carts 2 6 8 
£24 17 lOi 
To this must be added 16 bushels of gleaning corn, picked 
by the wife and two girls, and reckoned at 55. a bushel, and 
have a sum approaching 30/. earned by this family in the fi 
weeks over which the harvest extended. In this case the mai 
wages could not be put at a less sum than IO5. per diem for t 
