EARNINGS OF AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS. 179 



19s. 6d.in Edinburgh; cattlemen from 16s. in Nairn, to 19s. 5d. 
in Forfarshire; and orramen or ordinary labourers from 15s. 4d. 
in Nairn, to 19s. 4d.in Linlithgowshire. In the case of horse- 
men, which are the most representative class, the wages did 
not greatly differ in the majority ofcounties. Excluding Shet- 
Jand, Orkney, and Caithness, where the lowest rates were 
paid, and the counties where the rates exceeded 19s. a week, 
viz., Renfrew, Ayr, Linlithgow, Lanark, Edinburgh, Stirling, 
and Dumbarton, the average weekly earnings in the other 
counties ranged from 16s. 7d. to 18s. 8d. 
The returns furnished by the correspondents of the Labour 
Department as to the rates of weekly cash wages of ordinary 
agricultural labourers in England in 1899 and 1900 indicated 
that there had been an upward movement since 1898; there 
was also a tendency to an advance noticed in the rates of 
wages reported to the Department in 1899 and 1900 from 
Scotland in connection with the hiring fairs. 

