178 EARNINGS OF AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS. 
ploughmen, cattlemen, orramen or ordinary labourers, and 
shepherds. . 
Owing to the system of hiring there are few extra cash 
payments to Scotch farm servants, piecework being, as a 
rule, only undertaken by casual labourers, whose numbers 
are very small,and by Irishlabourers. At haytime men on 
‘the regular staff sometimes get refreshments when work- 
ing overtime, and in corn harvest food is often provided, or 
a cash payment of about 15s. to 25s. is made, the latter 
being more frequently given in the arable counties. On the 
other hand, the practice of giving part of the wages in allow- 
ances in kind is very common, especially in the case of 
food allowances, though the system of payment of wages in 
cash is growing. It is very generally the custom for unmarried 
men to lodge and board in the farmhouses or in bothies, 
when the farmer either boards them entirely or provides milk, 
oatmeal, and potatoes, and frequently an allowance of coal. 
In the Border counties ana Lothians married men usually get 
free cottages and gardens with from 1,200 to 1,800 yards of. 
planted potatoes, or an allowance of potatoes, as well as oat- 
meal, coals or coals carted free, and frequently food and 
drink during harvest. Milk, too, is often given and some- 
times straw for pigs and manure for gardens: In other 
parts of Scotland the allowances to married men are of much 
the same character, but they vary considerably in amount; 
in some districts more is given in cash and less in kind, and 
in others more in kind and less in cash. Shepherds gener- 
ally receive a considerable portion. in some cases all, of 
their wages in kind, and many have a “pack flock” of 
sheep which they keep with those of their employers. 
In estimating the value of the allowances to Scotch farm 
servants cottages have been valued by the Labour Depart- 
ment at £4 per annum, as was done in the case of England 
and Wale;, and the equivalent money worth of board and 
lodgings in the farm houses has been taken at 8s. per week. 
The average weekly earnings, including all allowances, in 
1898 in the counties for which complete returns for all classes 
of farm servants are forthcoming are shown to have ranged 
as follows:—Horsemen from 16s. 7d.in Ross and Cromarty, to 
