would be a generous estimate. There were in Sakaltutan some ten households whose
standard of living was about the same as this, and another half-dozen who were little
better off. In Elbshï, perhaps twenty households would fall into the same category.
Households at this level, who have no harvest of their own, often work for others
at the harvest and earn grain to store for their staple for the year. The watchman
in Elbashï had a slightly higher wage than that of Sakaltutan, but he gambled
with what money he got, and his wife and three sons were miserably poor. His wife
and eldest son each worked under contract at the harvest for fifteen bushels of grain
of mixed types, worth perhaps T.L.I00. Two brothers in Sakaltutan, included in the
ten poorest households above, worked as operators in the mill; they began at T.L.50
a month, but this was soon raised to T.L.75 and this regular income soon made a conspicuous
difference to their homes and families.
Expenditure is as difficult to estimate as income. Farming households still provide themselves with most of their own food, most if not all their own winter feed, most of their own seed, such fertiliser as they use, all their own fuel for heating, and their own wool. All households own their house and carry out their own maintenance. Non-farming households either enjoy an income in food from share-cropped land, or earn some of their own food in return for services.
Nevertheless, all households must spend some cash, and many households spend a great deal. The head of household 3 in Table 6 (p. 85) gave me the following estimate of his cash expenses, for a household of three adults and three children:
Food:
fat T.L.10 bones T.L.15
cabbage T.L.5 sugar T.L.l5
rice T.L.5 T.L. 50
Clothes and shoes T.L. 80
Cooking utensils T.L. 30
Taxes T.L. 40
Animal feed (waste from oil presses) T.L. l00
Total T.L. 300
This estimate is a little less than his estimated cash income of T.L.375 from grain, but it is extremely modest. The item for