134 
On Measure Work. 
are frequently let out by the job to men who, at a certain price per 
yard, agree to find horses, carts, and men, and food for the horses, 
with the exception that the employer allows grass and straw-chaff. 
The number of cubic yards carted is ascertained by taking the 
dimensions of the pit or heap from which the soil has been re- 
moved, so that there is no means of deception or occasion for dis- 
agreement. The price per yard for carting 1 furlong, is for clay 
7d. ; a penny is added for every additicmal furlong ; so that if the 
distance was 2 furlongs, 8(/., if three, 9</., would be charged per 
yard. The work is usually done with small carts drawn by 
strong ponies ; these appear much better suited to the removing 
heavy soil than the large carts and long teams which the farmer 
generally uses in this part of the country. I was told by an old 
man who has followed the business of clay and marl carter the 
greater part of his life, that on one occasion he had an opportunity 
of putting to the test the comparative merits of large and small 
carts. That when working in the same pit with another party of 
clay-fillers using large tumbrils or carts, his company of three 
men filling into small carts drawn by fiye ponies, were able to 
accomplish as much as four men filling into large carts drawn by 
seven powerful horses ; the distance and other points being equal. 
He also informed me that in a week of fine weather he has carted 
300 cubic yards of clay filled by three men working 8^ hours a 
day ; or I6| yards of filling and picking down daily. 
On our farm at the first beginning or sinking of a pit 140 
yards of clay were filled by two men working 7^ hours a day 
during 15 davs, giving an average for one man of more than 
9 yards. After the pit was sunk to about 8 feet deep, the two 
men filling and picking down averaged 10 yards each.* The 
spreading was done by the men and the boys who drove, working 
about an hour after they had finished carting for the day. The 
clay was carted in four small carts drawn by four ponies, with 
another to assist in pulling out of the pit ; the distance of carting 
averaged 2 furlongs, and in this manner 480 yards of clay were 
filled, carted, and spread at a cost of S\d. a yard on about 12 
acres of land. The labour of filling and spreading clay from a 
pit by the farmer's own labourers would be as well paid for by 
measuring the number of cubic yards removed ; but this plan is 
seldom practised, the men being paid by the number of cart- 
loads, each containing by rough calculation a cubic yard, or the 
carts may be filled up to a mark made in the sides. The carter 
who works by the dav keeps an account of the number of loads 
filled by the men in the pit, and as he is not interested he will in 
* I find the quantity of clay filled in a given time is below an average: 
this arose from wet weather and its being a bad kind of clay to fill. 
