and cheap means of transporting them in any direction or to any distance in the country. His establishment represents the most improved system that has yet been adopted, and he works it energetically and successfully. So, having seen it thoroughly, I had reason to regard it the best average example of the brick trade in The Black Country.
I have already cited a statement from a good authority as to the percentage of female labour employed. The same writer says: "The average hours of labour are from six a.m, to six p.m., and the girls are seldom required to work overtime, but the men who fire the kilns are engaged all night. In all the brick-fields the girls are required to turn on Sunday morning the bricks made on the previous day. The wages paid to the young girls vary from 8d, to 10d, per day, according to the amount of work they are able to perform, for the piece-work system generally prevails in the brick-yards. In the red and blue brick-works the girls are harder worked and worse paid than in the white brick-yards, which are not nearly so numerous. In the latter, the clay instead of being ground in a mill, has to be tempered by the women with their lands and naked feet. It is estimated that upwards of 1,200 females are employed at the various brick-fields of the district.
