Page:The farm labourer in 1872.djvu/13

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THE FARM LABOURER IN 1872.
9
Per week
s. d.
Allotment of land = about £4 of profit, or 1 6
Task work during half the year at 3s. or 1 6
Industrial profits in the farm, £5 to £7 say 2 6
Weekly wages 12 0
Harvest 50s., or 1 0
18 6

"Besides this, they have beer and cheap cottages, gleaning, privileges and carriage of coal. Sunday men get an extra shilling, and those that keep a cow get five shillings a week more out of it, so that my head-waggoner, who keeps a cow, must be getting over twenty-five shillings a week, including all allowances, and yet I have never raised his weekly wages directly.

"The other day there was a meeting to form a Union in the next village, and my men attended at my request. They were hooted for refusing to join, but when they explained what they were earning they had the laugh on their side; and some London agitators who had come down to speak, declared publicly that if all the farmers acted as I did, their occupation would be gone. I believe no union or agitation, or strike would have any effect on my men. I overheard one say to another a few days ago, 'We want no strikers here.' As for the labourers with cows, the offer of another three or