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Agricultural Wages
Taken from John Clarke's
'General View of the Agriculture of the County of Hereford'
published in 1794, agricultural wages at the time were as
follows
LABOURERS WAGES
Men hired by the year, from six to nine guineas.
Boys from -
- two to three ditto.
Women from -
- three to four ditto.
Time of hiring in May.
GRAIN IS THRESHED
Wheat for three pence halfpenny per bushel, of ten gallons.
Barley, pease, and beans three half-pence,
ditto ditto
Also three quarts of drink per day to each man.
DAY LABOURERS
Six shillings a week in summer, and a gallon of
drink to
each man.
Five shillings a week in winter, with three quarts of drink.
In harvest, fourteen pence a day, with meat and drink.
Women, six-pence a day, with two quarts of drink all
the year, except in harvest, when they also have meat.
Time of working. In harvest, as early and late as they
can see; in winter from light to dark; and in summer from
six to six.
The grain is cut by persons who come from the moun-
tainous parts of Wales annually for that purpose, mostly
from Cardiganshire. A foreman generally agrees for a whole
farm at a stated price per acre, who finds the rquisite num-
ber of hands to fulfill his contract, at whatever price he
can.
Planting hedges, and making the ditch, from six-pence to
ten-pence a perch, (of seven yards) depending on the depth
of the ditch.
Plathing - (that is laying old hedges) from four-pence
to
six-pence a perch. This is done very neat. The plants are
cut almost wholly through, in order to encourage the
young shoots to spring round the old stump.
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