iz EARNINGS OF AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS. 

in the summer in Dorset, and in the winter in Berkshire, 
Wiltshire, and Dorset. In Middlesex both summer and 
winter wages were returned at 16s. 
The proximity of manufacturing, mining, and other indus- 
tries undoubtedly exercises a considerable influence in 
maintaining a higher scale of wages in the nerthern coun- 
ties, and it appears, moreover, that the number of extra 
payments in the north are generally fewer than elsewhere, 
so that the wages are more evenly distributed throughout 
the year. Examples of the effect of neighbouring manu- 
facturing and populous centres on the wages of agricultural 
labourers are also forthcoming from some of the Midland 
and Home Counties. In Norfolk, Suffolk, Rutland, and 
Buckingham, which are almost purely rural in character, 
and subjected only in a small measure to the influences of 
large towns and important industries, the difference between 
the maximum and minimum rates of wages paid does not 
amount to more tnan Is. or 2s. per week; but in the counties. 
such as Essex, Kent and Surrey, which) abut jomueme 
metropolis, and the northern parts of Worcester and 
Warwick, which are affected by the proximity of Birming- 
ham and other manufacturing centres, the difference amounts 
to as much as 7s. or 8s. In Kent, in the winter of 1898, the 
range was from 12s. in the rural districts of Cranbrook and 
Tenterden, which are distant from any important manufac- 
turing centre, to 17s. and 18s. 1n Bromley, Hoo, and Strood, 
the first being a suburb of London and the other two in 
close proximity to Chatham. | 
It has already been observed that the range in the pre- 
dominant rates of cash wages in England in 1898 was in 
winter from ios. in Suffolk to 19s. in Lancashire, and in 
summer from 11s. in Suffolk and Dorset to 19s. in Lanca- 
shire. In 18092, according to the report prepared ybymeue 
late Mr. W. C. Little for the Royal Commission on 
Labour, the range of the average weekly wages of ordinary 
agricultural labourers was from tos. in Dorset and Wilt- 
shire to 18s. in Lancashire and Cumberland. 
Weekly cash wages do not, however, afford a trustworthy 
criterion by which the real earnings of the labourers may be 
