THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



497 



properly qualifying for that course of life lie has to 

 look forward to. Now the wording of the Club subject 

 was made to depend especially upon the latter — 

 " That the improved education of the labourer is 

 essential to the present position of the farmer." Un- 

 fortunately, perhaps, the debate did not keep so close 

 to this new reading as might have been desirable. 

 The Reverend Mr. James, who opened the discussion — 

 and few could be better qualified to do so — read an 

 essay on the education generally of the labouring 

 classes. The style of his paper was of itself somewhat 

 remarkable. It positively abounded in wise saws, 

 quaint maxims, eccentric definitions, and startling 

 antitheses. His reasoning, moreover, was such 

 as we might have good cause to e.xpect from a 

 gentleman of so much ability and experience with 

 what he undertook. But still the improved 

 education of the farm servant as essential to the 

 farmer was only incidentally touched on. We may 

 point to two or three sentences which should have 

 given a more general tone to the opening address and 

 subsequent debate : " Let there be, in addition fo the 

 ordinary tuition, works of industry and manual skill 

 united — seeing that what were once considered compli- 

 cated machines as applied to agriculture are now com- 

 mon things, the reapmg machine an acknowledged 

 fact — and boys who can turn their hands to rectifying 

 or mending, or even using them skilfully, are sure to 

 get on ; as any lad who was taught turnip hoeing as 

 practised on the Duke of Bedford's estate at Woburn 

 would always obtain extra wages, and be eagerly sought 

 for by the farmer in the district at an advanced sum, 

 so, I say, let such work as I have mentioned hence- 

 forth form part of our intellectual and industrial train- 

 ing. Let our poor children be educated, as far as pos- 

 sible, in those branches of knowledge and trade which 

 bear on that specific kind of labour or skill which in 

 their locality is required." 



This is the improved education of the labourer re- 

 quired, and none know this better than the farmers 

 themselves. What is the impediment to the yet ex- 

 tended use of one of the chief features in the practice of 

 modern husbandry — machinery 1 Is it disinclination 

 on the part of the farmer, or exorbitant prices de- 

 mandtd by the manufacturer? Both buyer and seller 

 are too good judge3, by this time, to let any such show- 

 ing stand in the way. Ask one or the other, and from 

 the experience of either you will have much the same 

 answer. The reason why efiicient machinery is 

 not more genei'ally employed for agricultural purposes 

 is from the want of efScient hands to work it. Not, 

 however, that the men themselves have any lingei'ing 

 dislike or prejudice to conquer. The days are long 

 since passed away when they felt it a duty to their own 

 order to break up a thrashing machine or a hay- 

 maker. The chief cause why more labourers cannot 

 be entrusted with machinery, is that implied on the 

 discussion card of the Farmer's Club— they are not 

 educated up to their work. The men know this 

 well enough themselves, and see and feel daily the 

 advantage a skilled man has over them, But of course 



the loss is mutual — to none more so than the em- 

 ployer. Mr. James refers to the reaping-machine as 

 " an acknowledged fact," as no doubt it is. On the very 

 day succeeding the discussion, we were told by one of the 

 best farmers in Cambridgeshire that during the last har- 

 vest, with his corn quite fit, he lost half a week of beauti- 

 ful weather in this wise. He had purchased one of the 

 favourite reapers, and he had to wait for a man 

 from London to set them going in the right way ! 

 And, as this same man was due in three or four places 

 at once, the very object of the reaper became in a great 

 measure destroyed— that is, making the most of a fine 

 day. The same argument applies as strongly to the use 

 of the steam-engine — or we should have not had such 

 serious accidents to report of late — and in some places 

 even to the drill. There are a few educated men, for 

 whom we have to wait our turn. These know their own 

 value, and often enough abuse their position. It so 

 happens that, with the best means and appliances, the 

 most judicious arrangements, and most suitable wea- 

 ther, a harvest or seed-time may be jeopardized or 

 lost, simply because a foreman is too busy, too inde- 

 pendent, or, as it has happened, too drunk to come to 

 his work. 



This demonstrates *' the improved education of the 

 labourer the present position of the farmer essentially 

 requires." By all means give him a good cottage and 

 good moral teaching. Encourage evening schools and 

 self-reliance and respect. But do not forget in these 

 times to educate him as you would any other man, to 

 the business he is intended for. He must get now to 

 something beyond thatching and hoeing, and hedging 

 and ditching. Unless, that is, you still prefer to wait 

 for Mr. Smith, who "can't come till the day but one 

 after to-morrow." 



We may leave the report of the Club proceedings to 

 speak for itself, while we shall conclude with an extract 

 from elsewhere that shows it is not the man alone who 

 wants a fitting education. Mr. James dwells strongly 

 on the advantages of a good wife. A few weeks previ- 

 ous, at the Sudbury (Suffolk) Meeting, Mr. Thomas 

 Hawkins turned education to something the same 

 account — " In many of their modern schools they got 

 a vast deal of knowledge, with, he was sorry to say, 

 very little wisdom to direct that knowledge; and with 

 regard to those flimsy duties which were introiluced to 

 amuse the children, and as a relief to the more labo- 

 rious studies, he must say that they often puff'ed up, 

 and certainly did not tend to the real improvement of 

 the labouring class. If they wanted to educate a child 

 they must consider the circumstances of life in which 

 it was likely to be placed; and his education should 

 be such as would fit him for that position. With re- 

 gard to girls, he was sure the flimsy knowledge he had 

 referred to had only tended to make them worse ser- 

 vants, and to make their position worse than if they 

 had merely had a plain and useful, with at the same 

 time, moral and religious, education. Take a girl 

 from a National school, and the chances were she 

 could tambour and crochet, but not be able to darn a 

 hole in a stocking. He recollected the time when they 



