11% = 510 The Agricultural Labourer. 
ploughed and manured for him, and the master and himsei 
sharing the crop equally. 
Nominal Without, then, entering into a more minute account of 
weekly wages wage-question, which, unless very carefully examined, is apt 
™co*st' 0° work mislead the inquirer, I shall content myself with the asserticj 
per acre. that, as a rule, the average amount of weekly wages paid ;i 
different parts of the country may be taken as no very un£fti 
index of the actual amount of work performed by the avei 
labourer of such districts. Whether the nominal weekly w; 
are 13*. or 18s., the amount of actual labour performed 
something like a relative proportion to these sums. 
A remarkable fact may be cited in proof of such an asse 
tion. The cultivation of arable land in Northumberland ar 
in the south costs at the present time about the same sum p 
acre, cropped in the same manner ; yet the nominal wages : 
Northumberland exceed those in thq south by 50 per cent. Tl 
inference seems to be plain. The higher-priced workman pe 
forms a much larger amount of work. But it would be a fallac 
to suggest, therefore, that it would be good policy on the part 
the southern farmer at once to raise his wages to the northei 
rate. The habits of a race cannot thus suddenly be changet 
a high-priced wage will, it is true, be probably followed by 
higher standard of work in the long run, because no farm 
could afford for long to pay high wages for inferior labour ; b 
in the meantime the ordinary laws of supply and demand mu 
take their course, and until these conditions are more equalise 
it would be impossible, without injury to both parties, 
endeavour to force the rate of increase. 
Allowances to Before leaving the question of wages, I ought to point o il 
'^rt^'^"^ that in many parts of the country considerable perquisites 
increased " privileges," as they are called, are allowed the labourer whii 
wages. supplement his weekly wages to a large extent. For instanc 
in Dorsetshire, he generally gets his cottage rent free or pays 
mere nominal sum of Is. a week, or so, for it. Besides this i 
not unfrequently gets firewood free ; a large piece of pota 
ground upon the farm, ploughed and manured ready forplantin 
and nearly always an allowance of cider (the southern beverag 
every day during the year. In nearly every county in Englai 
some allowances of this kind are made, which renders it e 
tremely difficult, without diligent inquiry, to get at the actu 
earnings of an average labourer ; but it is to the advantage 
all concerned that the custom, once universal, of giving part 
the wages (at any rate during hay and harvest times) in beer 
cider is gradually declining, and that money wages, whu 
enable a man to spend what he likes on such indulgences, a 
taking their place. But in cases where the labourer is una! 
i 
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