On Measure Work. 
123 
work in them. In this practice a man called the ganger or 
undertaker agrees with the farmer for certain work, generally 
hoeing wheat and turnips, harvesting and storing away root-crops, 
dibbling wheat, or any light work in which women and children 
are employed. The undertaker having made a bargain with the 
farmer, gets together an assemblage of labourers of all descrip- 
tions and characters from the neighbouring towns and villages; 
these have often to walk some distance to their work, and are 
then exposed to all the corrupting influence of bad companions ; 
their wages are uncertain, for as soon as the weather becomes 
unfavourable or the job is ended, they are thrown out of employ. 
To take the place of the gang I would either have a steady man, 
paid a shilling or two a week extra, to superintend the children, 
or put out work in which they are required to men with large 
fiamilies, who would then have an opportunity of overlooking the 
behaviour of their own children. 
The measurement of task-work may be most exactly taken by 
the chain for land and the length of drains and ditches, and the 
tape for taking the cubic contents of heaps of soil and manure, 
the dimensions of clay-pits, and the square contents of thatching. 
I need hardly remind the farmer of the assistance he may obtain 
from the agricultural table-books, which will be found very useful, 
and mav be had at a price within the reach of every one. 
The rates of payment for task-work given by me are those paid 
during the last ten years ; the day-wages have been successively 
8s., 95., and 10s. a-week ; the present wages for a common day- 
labourer are 10s. for summer and winter; during harvest 
upwards of IZ. a-week is earned, and in haymaking time beer is 
given in addition to the common price of a day's work. A woman 
working from eight in the morning to six in the evening has 8rf. 
or \Qd. a-day. 
The usual hours of day-labour with us are in summer from 
six in the morning to six in the evening, in winter as long as 
it is light; out of this the labourer is allowed 1^ hour for 
breakfast and dinner. Men employed with horses work from six 
in the morning to half-past two in the afternoon,* including a 
short time for breakfast : during harvest, from five in the morning 
to seven in the evening, or as long as the farmer pleases ; out of 
this they rest about two hours. 
The quantities of the various kinds of work which I shall 
state as performed in a given time, are taken from task-work 
* I find it a much better plan for horses and men to bait the horses for 
an hour, excepting in the shortest days of winter, and in summer to let 
them lie by for two hours, or even for three, during sUch heat as we have 
lately experienced. — Ph. Pusey. 
To this I agree after experience. — Portman. 
