The Labour Bill in Farniing. 
105 
Is. above the ordinary wages, and they paid no rent for their 
cottages, which have two rooms downstairs and three bedrooms. 
The sheplierds also live rent-free. 
\ i])ers and rats seem an unlikely source of income, but they 
add a trifle to the wages at Knettishall, and I dare say at most 
<ither farms where these vermin abound. Here again the pay- 
ment is by results. Rats are worth a penny each to the man 
who can kill them ; vipers twopence. It costs the farmer 8/. or 
107. a year to keep down the rats at Knettishall. An unusual 
number of vipers made their appearance during the hot, thy 
season of 1874, and a boy caught eight in one day. They are 
not pleasant visitors, for they bite the sheep, and at the time of 
my visit two sheep had already been killed by them, the vipers 
nearly always biting in the face or throat. Among other small 
earnings may be mentioned that of the tliatcher, who recei\ es 
\s. per corn-stack, besides his harvest-wages, and 8f/. a day extra 
ior thatching hay. Trussing stover (hay made from artificial 
grass) is paid for at the rate of 20d. per ton. In the autumn 
" topping and filling " the mangolds — that is wringing off or 
cutting off the tops and filling the tumbrils — costs 8s. an acre, 
and the same price is paid for " hilling up " the swedes in 
readiness lor cutting when the hoggets and sheep are turned 
upon the land. I have already stated that overtime, instead of 
being coaxed out of the men by beer, is paid for at the rate of 
Zd. an hour. If any necessary work falls to be done on Sundays, 
it is also pair for as an extra. The stockman, besides IGs. a 
week, gets a penny a score for all the eggs he collects. His wife 
attends to the poultry, and makes 3/. or 4/. in the course of the 
year. The sheep-washing is done by Mr. Mathew's own men. 
The four who stand at the tubs and wash receive 3s. a day and 
their board ; and the shepherd has 35s. with which to buy meat 
and beer. 
These details will give some notion of the possibility of 
adapting the piece or task system to a good deal of farm-work. 
The result of such a system is encouraging to the men, and 
a source of profit to the farmer, because he gets more for his 
money. But the farmer, I repeat, if he wishes to be well-served 
under this system, must lav down a scale of payments in no 
grudging spirit, remembering the wise saying of old, " There 
is that scattereth and yet increaseth." If a man finds that by 
^' working his heart out," as the common phrase runs, he can 
only earn a few pence more than by lounging through the day, 
he will reckon naturally enough that it is not worth while to 
task his strength and energies for so small a gain. No doubt, 
also, there are men constitutionally indolent, self-indulgent, and 
careless of the future, who will never do a stroke more work than 
