ABSTRACT
The harvest provided work for all; it restored family earning power; it altered the circumstances of competition – no longer necessarily worker against worker for limited work – thus giving the labourers the only opportunity to bargain their skills and restoring dignity to them in the use of those skills. If, however, a considerable proportion of the extra summer earnings accrued to the day labourers through individual effort and family participation, there could be little economic advancement, for these earnings, for the most part, served to balance the periods of winter underemployment or unemployment. If harvest customs lingered longer in the northern counties of England sustaining individuals with a continuing spirit of community, piece work in the south provided some economic recompense. If these harvest earnings depended on excessive individual and family effort, the amount of work and the skill with which it was performed brought recognition and esteem from local inhabitants.
