110 
The Labour Bill in Farming. 
not so applied, they lead at times to waste and extravagance. 
" Quickly come, quickly go and the money soon burns a hole 
in the pocket of the unmarried labourer, unless he has more than 
an ordinary share of prudence. The zeal of harvest labourers 
is stimulated by higher wages at that season all over England. 
But outside East Anglia such wages as 21., 21. 10s., and even 3/. a 
week, for harvesting, I believe, are nowhere given. If these wages 
could be spread over the rest of the year and hirings were made 
yearly or half-yearly, the labourer would be much better off. At 
present he earns least when he wants most. In the winter months 
wages are sometimes reduced by a shilling a week, on account 
of the smaller quantity of work done ; and the opportunities of 
earning extra money by piece-work must be fewer than they are 
<luring the summer. More food, too, is wanted, with more warm 
clothing and more fuel. But when the pinch comes at this time, 
the harvest earnings are generally gone — not necessarily ill-spent, 
but spent without that thrift and regard for actual wants which 
would guide both housewife and wage-earner if the money came 
in regular weeklv sums all through the year. 
I know of one instance in which a Suffolk farmer has acted 
upon this view, and with the consent of his labourers is now 
paying the able-bodied men an average wage of 18.f. weekly, upon 
a yearly hiring. It is an experiment, and in Suffolk, at least, a 
novelty, though less of a novelty than at first sight appears ; for 
I repeat that it only applies to the staff of able-bodied men 
generally, terms of hiring already recognised in the case of 
the shepherd and one or two other hands on almost every farm. 
I have said that farmers object to long hirings because if a 
man grows discontented, or if a difference arises between him 
and his master, he ceases to work with any will or spirit — 
ceases to give remunerative work, and had better go. The 
yearly hiring, it is contended, is a premium upon the growth of 
disaffection and discontent among the men at a season when it 
would be their interest to leave their employ. For example, they 
might work at the 18.s'. rate while the days were short and the 
woik was slack, and they might leave their master in the busy 
season. In case, however, of any breach of agreement under such 
circumstances, the master has a summary remedy at law, and, 
whether the agreement were enforced or not, a labourer who 
left his employer in the lurch so unhandsomely would find it 
difficult to gain other employment upon like terms. Employers, 
for their own safety, would be careful whom they hired by the 
year, and would generally, from previous personal acquaintance 
or as the result of good references, know something of a man's 
antecedents before engaging him. Such a hiring, including 
" haysel " and harvest, would secure the employer against being| 
