Agriculture of Berkshire. 
43 
quite willing to cut where it cannot, Avithout additional pay : 
consequently the benefit is mutual. I am therefore disposed to 
speak very favourably of a machine which enables a farmer to 
secure his harvest witli pleasure to himself and satisfaction to his 
labourers, and at the same time to be independent of a class of 
people who one half the year travel about the country earning the 
money which the regular labourers ought to have the privilege of 
earning, and who often spend the other half in a very questionable 
manner. 
Lii30URERs' Wages and Condition. 
So far as means go, the condition of the labourer may be con- 
sidered satisfactory ; the average weekly pay is IO5. to lis. ; in 
the lower part of the county it is rather less, and as we approach 
nearer to London somewhat higher. Carters and shepherds have 
\s. per week more than the day-labourer with rent-free cottage 
and from 2/. to 5/. as wages, paid at Michaelmas at the termi- 
nation of a year's service ; under carters and shepherds re- 
ceive from G*'. to 8s. per week, and from 3Z. to 6/. of yearly- 
wages ; plough-boys and shepherd-boys from 3s. 6^?. to 4s. 6c?. 
per week, and from 1/. 10s. to 21. 10s. wages ; the practice of 
allowing beer is almost discontinued, excepting in the hay-making 
and harvest, when the men get three or four quarts of ale, and 
boys two quarts per day. As much of the work as possible is done 
by the piece :■ — reaping 10s. to 12s. per acre, more in some 
instances for lodged crops ; mowing bai-ley and oats 3s. 6fZ. to 
4s. 6f/. ; mowing grass 3s. to 4s. ; flat-hoeing turnips once 5s., 
twice 9s. to 10s. ; hoeing beans or peas 4s. to 6s. ; threshing 
barley by flail Is. %d. to Is. IQd. per quarter. The following 
account of the earnings of an ordinary married labourer, with 
the assistance of his wife, during the wheat and barley harvest, 
is from the labour-book on a farm in the central district of the 
county, and may be taken as a fair average : — 
1859. £. s. d. 
1st quarter, ending March 25 7 18 
2nd „ June 24 7 9 3 
3rd „ September 29 15 6 6i 
„ December 31 10 10 9 
40 8 2-i 
being 15s. Q^d. per week. 
The labourers are generally paid in money every week, many 
larmers paying on the Friday to give them the opportunity of 
spending their money on the Saturday to the best advantage : 
others pay on Saturday, and a few only once a fortnight. Women 
are seldom seen in the fields during the winter months ; but in 
weeding, hay-making, and harvest-time, they are extensively em- 
ployed. 
