172 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [lL Mar., 1900 
growing counties of Cambridgeshire, Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Lincolnshie 
the average cash earnings per man for the entire harvest are estimated, on tht | 
basis of the returns received, at £7 11s.; and in the Midland, Home, Sout Ge | 
and South-western counties, grouped together, at £4 12s. | 
In addition to cash payments, beer or cider is given in a number of cast | 
and sometimes tea, bread, butter, and cheese. In Norfolk and Suffolk, ys, | 
often given for hiring-money, and also ‘‘ horkey’’? money—z.e., about 2s. 6d. | 
a supper at harvest. a 
A large employer of labour in Suffolk states that he paid £7 each to abo i | 
100 men on the farm he manages. Each man was paid £7 for 13 acres, | 
in addition was given 3 bushels of malt and 38 lb. of hops; 10s. an acre’ | 
given for cutting and carting every acre over the 13 stipulated acres. | 
In the fen districts in Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire, the harvest * | 
usually done by piecework, and in other parts a daily, weekly, or monthly W 1 | 
is paid. Thus, on a farm in the Louth Union of Lincolnshire, where 4 ‘< 
forty men were at work at harvest, some were employed at piecework at 8? 
to 7s. per acre, each man taking 20 to 25 acres; while some were pal fi y 
month, and others 5s. a day. gh 
In Northamptonshire a large employer paid the following rates :—4? | 
per day during harvest month ; but nearly all the men have piecework (ct | 
with the machine, mowing, or tying), at which they earned from ds. 6d. t0! ‘| 
per day, so that they received from £6 to £7 6s. for the month. i 
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= 
THE PRINCIPLES OF SHEEP-BREEDING. 
No. 8. 
By J. 8. HERMANN SCHMIDT. 
WOOLLEN MANUFACTURE. P| 
Havine explained the nature of the wool fibres as animal products, as staple 
and as fleece, I purpose giving a short description of the different procee i 
ae 
necessary to manufacture wool into material for clothing. It is nov 
intention to make a lengthy and tiresome description of the manufacture % 
different kinds of woollen goods; I merely wish to show why certain quali’ 
of the wool are specially desirable, and for what special purposes this oF ves | 
description of wool is suited. Several methods are adopted to unite wool fib to | 
into material for clothing purposes. firstly, felting; secondly, twisting “08 | 
threads and weaving or knitting them together ; or, thirdly, weaving and elie 
In the following essay I have borrowed from R. Beaumont’s handbook. | 
FELTING. «at 
Felting is probably the most primitive method of working wool ram 
material fitted for clothing purposes, and we see it even now employ! Fl 10 
various ways. When speaking about the elasticity of the wool, I have ‘i Al 
give an intelligible description of the felting process. I mentioned th@ Ke 
kinds of animal hair, as long as they are not too short, will felt into 4 aaa 
and compact body; that the property of felting is by no means confined 10 otf 
fibres alone ; and that any kind of hair that possesses some elas 
combined with pliability may be felted. Another method of joining 
wool fibres in order to make clothing material is the twisting of them into i 
or less fine ropes or threads to be woven or knitted together (7.¢., sp? iy 
The distaff and, later on, the wheel are the most primitive implemen” — 
spinning fibres into a yarn—now replaced by the spinning machines. . tof 
Before the wool is spun into yarns it has to undergo several prepa! 
treatments to which I can refer here very briefly only—namely, 5's 
scouring, burr extracting, teazing, carding, combing, &e. Sorting 1s onde 
the purpose of removing from the wool by mechanical means all foreign pat 
