They seldom taste butter, using lard
instead; and the 'margarine' which is sold in the towns does not
find its way into the cottages of the outlying country districts.
Sugar has for many years been much dearer than in England, and the
price is steadily rising, but with this exception the food of the
people is cheap. Tea enters Belgium duty free, but the peasants
never use it. Many villagers smoke coarse tobacco grown in their own
gardens, and a 10-centimes cigar is the height of luxury. Tobacco
being a State monopoly in France, the high price in that country
makes smuggling common, and there is a good deal of contraband
trading carried on in a quiet way on the frontiers of West Flanders.
The average wage paid for field labour is from 1 franc 50 centimes
to 2 francs a day for married men--that is to say, from about 1s.
3d. to 1s. 8d. of English money. Bachelors generally receive 1
franc (10d.) a day and their food. The working hours are long,
often from five in the morning till eight in the evening in summer,
and in winter from sunrise till sunset, with one break at twelve
o'clock for dinner, consisting of bread with pork and black coffee,
and another about four in the afternoon, when what remains of the
mid-day meal is consumed.
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