EARNINGS OF AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS. 171 

culties of classification exist also in the case of the Yorkshire 
labourers. In all three Ridings there is a large class of hired 
men, chiefly unmarried horsemen, lodging and boarding in the 
farmhouses, but on the small farms particular spheres of work 
are often not allotted, the general work of the farm being 
carried on by all the men. So thatin the case of Yorkshire 
as well as Cumberland, Westmorland, and North Lancashire 
the wages of the married men who are paid weekly have been 
taken as those of ordinary labourers, although such men are 
frequently employed to some extent in looking after animals. 
Cash wages are the principal payment in nearly all agri- 
cultural districts, and for almost. every class of farm servants, 
For labourers engaged by the week they are the wages 
recognised throughout a district which would be given by 
the employer and accepted by the ordinary labourer in the 
absence of any agreement. These weekly wages are, how- 
ever, nearly always supplemented by additional payments 
for piece-work, harvesting and haymaking, and by other 
allowances in money or kind, all of which must be con- 
sidered in order to obtain a true idea of the real reward of 
agricultural labour. 
The statements furnished to the Labour Department show 
a wide divergence in the standing cash wages (exclusive of 
all extra earnings, and of the value of any allowances either 
in cash or kind) paid to ordinary labourers in various parts of 
England in 1808, the predominant summer rates having varied 
from 11s. weekly in Suffolk and Dorset to 19s. in Lancashire ; 
and the winter rates from ros. in Suffolk to 19s. in Lancashire. 
In the Northern Counties the rates were generally higher 
than elsewhere, the range there having been from 15s. in the 
East Riding of Yorkshire to 19s. in Lancashire, both in the 
summer and winter. In the Midland and Eastern Counties, 
except Derby and Chester, where the rates approached to 
those of the North, the range for summer was from IIs. in 
Suffolk, to 15s. in Nottingham, Leicester, Rutland, Stafford, 
and Lincolnshire ; and for winter it was from ros. in Suffolk 
to 15s. in Nottingham, Leicester, and Staffordshire. Similar 
rates were also returned from the Southern and South- 
Western Counties ; but there the lowest scale was 11s. paid 
