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pick 3 pick 3 pick 3 basket 2 pick 3 pick 3 pick 3 pick 3 pick 3 basket 2 basket 2 pick 3 A 10 B 11 C 12 2baskets due 4 4baskets due 8 15 20

Then if in a normal four-gang, A, one boy takes a pick they become as in B, and only have 11/15 of the piece pay, as the master has to supply the other two baskets for the normal gang of equal numbers of picks and baskets. Similarly if both boys take picks, as in C, the pay is of course ⅗ of what it would normally be; the other ⅖ being spent in supplying locals. The one absolute rule, however, is that if there are enough old trained hands to do the cutting, no local shall be allowed to do pick-work, as his intelligence, knowledge, and honesty are not to be trusted without training. The combination of piece pay for cutting and day pay for carrying is a happy one; as the piecework keeps the men moving, and they stir up the boys on day pay (Fig.19).

In European countries this use of boys is scarcely possible owing to the national education. In Greece as in England the boys are required to go to school, and their holidays there are not at a time suitable for excavating, while in England the holidays are occupied by the harvest. Hence all work has to be done by men, at a higher rate of pay; and so mechanical aids to moving earth would be more profitable than they are in Egypt.