On the subject of mechanisation, the 1880s "Agricultural notebook" shows the reduction in labour which resulted from the introduction of new machinery:
"Quantity of hay cut with the old sickle- 1/4 acre per day
with a scythe- 3/4 to 1 acre per day
with a mowing machine- 8 acres per day"
so a man on a 2 horse mower could cut 32 times the area compared to a mediaeval peasant or around 10 times as much as the scythe-men of the early 19th century.
Harvesting cereals was transformed by the introduction of the "Self-Binding reaper" which was perfected by McCormick in 1878 and introduced to England shortly afterwards. This allowed a man to harvest an acre an hour, as opposed to an acre a day when cutting by hand.
The notebook gives the following figures for threshing the corn, which had traditionally provided winter work for labourers:
"Ave quantity thrashed per day by hand- 5qrs
by horse machine-20-30qrs
by steam machine-60-100qrs."
Even though the steam machine needed several men to operate it, it was still a huge labour saver.
Fred
