136 
On Measure Work. 
mixing it well as he proceeds, he then throws this up with a fork, 
and goes on alternately picking and throwing up. The general 
and perhaps the best way of paying for the labour of turning over 
manure-heaps is by giving a certain sum for each heap ; we usually 
pay from 8s. to 125., but this of course varies with the size of 
the heap, and the nature of the substances of which it is com- 
posed. A fair price may be calculated by taking the dimensions 
in cubic yards ; it will cost but a few minutes to make a measure- 
ment. Or sometimes the farmer keeps an account of the number 
of loads carted on the heap, and by that means fixes a price at so 
much per score loads of about 1^ cubic yards each. For turning 
over farm-yard manure Is per score; and for picking down and 
turning over heaps composed of earth and manure, 2s. per score 
loads are paid. 
4. Burning Peat-ashes is an uncertain employment for the 
labourer ; the quantity of ashes depending in a great measure 
upon the weather for drying the peat. The customary payment 
for burning peat-ashes is about 5/. per 1000 bushels, reckoning 
2.5 bushels to a cubic yard. I think, however, payment by the 
cubic yard is quite as correct a way of ascertaining the true quan- 
tity. The season for burning being at an end, the ashes are laid 
(previously to thatching) in a rectangular heap of 15 feet average 
width, 3 feet in depth, and to any convenient length ; the length, 
breadth, and depth being multiplied into each other, and then 
divided by 27, we shall thus have the number of cubic yards. 
The price paid by us per yard is from 2s. to 2s. Ad. ; in an aver- 
age season of 20 weeks (harvest included) a man and his wife 
burnt 200 cubic yards, which at 2s. a yard gave them iZ. a week. 
4. Task-work to which the Corn Measure is applicable. 
Table of Corn Measure. 
4 pecks . . . make 1 bushel. 
4 bushels . . . „ 1 coomb. 
8 bushels . . „ 1 quarter. 
Corn-measure applies to threshing corn by the flail — a practice 
which will, it is hoped, be soon superseded by threshing-machines. 
However, as a large portion of grain is still threshed by manual 
labour, I cannot but give it a place in my description of piece- 
work. The quantity of corn threshed in a given time either by 
the flail or by machines will depend upon a variety of circum- 
stances ; the kind of soil upon which the grain grew, the season, and 
the condition when harvested, will all affect the quantity threshed 
in a given time. In our neighbourhood (Suffolk) but a small 
proportion of the farmers have threshing-machines of their own ; 
but there are men who get their living by letting out port- 
