On Measure Work. 
for harvest, of which I am about to give a description. A man 
will cut upwards of 2 acres of barley in a day ; of oats he will 
not be able to get over quite so much. 
5. Harvest-work is generally put out by task. Some farmers 
give a certain price per man to a company, who agree in return 
to do all the harvest-work in cutting, carrying, and stacking the 
corn, to which an acre or two of turnip-hoeing for each man is 
sometimes added. Others hire a sufficient number of men, for 
four or five weeks, at a certain sum for that time ; this method is 
mostly practised by small farmers, who work with the men and 
keep them from loitering, for otherwise there would not be much 
inducement for the labourers to hurry. On the larger farms two 
distinct modes of hiring are sometimes adopted : the men are 
divided into two companies — one called the crop-men, who en- 
gage to cut a certain number of acres of wheat, all the barley, 
oats, peas, beans, or any other crop that may be grown on the 
farm, to pitch and load all the corn, and to turn a portion of it 
when required ; to this is added a certain quantity of turnip- 
hoeing, about one or two acres for each man. The yard-men, as 
the others are called, are hired by the month or five weeks ; their 
labour is of various kinds, though principally confined to cutting 
wheat, unloading and stacking corn, and any other labour that 
may require to be done. An able-bodied man is usually paid 
4/. IO5. and 3 bushels of malt for five weeks' certain employment ; 
while the crop-men, who work by the job, have from 4Z. 10s. to 
5/. and 3 bushels of malt, whether their harvest is of long or 
short duration. 
On a farm of 240 acres of arable land, cultivated on the 
Norfolk rotation, six crop-men are sufficient ; the following is a 
rough calculation of the work performed by each man, and the 
cost per acre : — 
£. s. 
Cutting (mowing) 8 acres of wheat, at 7f. . . .2 16 
Mowing 10 acres of barley, at 2$ 10 
Pitching and loading 10 acres of wheat, at Is. . . 0 10 
„ „ 10 acres of barley, at 1?. 6c/. . 0 15 
Turning barley 0 3 
Twice hoeing 1 acre of turnips, at 6^ 0 6 
£5 10 
Where beans are grown, the cost of cutting and tying is about 
6.y. ; the cost of making peas is from 4.if. to 5.v. an acre. 
6. Hoeing the many crops that are benefited by the free use 
of the hoe, offers frequent opportunity for the employment of the 
labourer by measure-work. Turnip-hoeing will first come under 
our notice. The average price we pay for the first hoeing, or sin- 
