PRICE OF LABOUR. 253 
Day labourer’s wages, with beer, Is.; hours of work¬ 
ing, six to six ; in winter, from light to dark. Wheat 
threshing, per bushel, 4d. Barley, ditto, 2fd. Beans, 
ditto, 2d. Grass mowing, per acre, and six quarts of 
beer, Is. Sd. Hay making, Is. 4d. to Is. Gd. per daj T , 
with beer. Harvest month, 30s. and maintenance, or 
3i. and beer; instead of beer, I give five pecks of malt 
and one pound of hops to each labourer.— Mr. Oldacre. 
/ 
The price of labour varies at different parts of the 
county ; in 1807 Mr. Richard Miller, at Brant Hall, 
states it to be as follows:—4 labourer in harvest, Is. 
fid. a day, and meat and drink, and the carriage of 
a load of coals. At other times, 2s. per day, and 
beer ; or to 2s. 6d. without beer. Waggoner, per an¬ 
num, 12l. 12s. Man servant, 101. 10s. Dairy maid, 
5l. to 61. Under maid, 3b to 5l. Wheat threshing, 
7d. Barley, 4d. Oats, 2fd. per bushel. Plough¬ 
ing, 10s. 6d. per acre. 
The average price of labour, with drink (beer, cy¬ 
der, or perry), is Is. a day, or Is. 2d. without, at the 
choice of the person employed. A true idea of the ex¬ 
pense of furnishing drink, will not be formed from the 
proportion the two prices bear to each other, or from 
what is usual in most other parts: two gallons a day is 
now pretty generally considered as thefixed allowance to 
each man, in the harvest months, but oftentimes there 
is no restriction. In extenuation of this abuse, it is 
said that a part is taken home to the families; but this, 
when it happens, may be set down as an exception to 
general custom. Hired servants have the same. 
The 
