2 INTRODUCTION 



avocation. A man is quite as happy in the enjoyment of 

 one hobby as of another, provided it be of his own choice ; 

 and it is much better for himself, for the sake of his own 

 comfort as well as of the permanency of his employment 

 and amount of remuneration for the same, if the hobby be 

 that by which he wins his daily bread. One of the weak 

 points in the British system of education, so far as agri- 

 cultural labourers and the small working-farmer classes are 

 concerned, is that no adequate provision is made for their 

 learning in their youth (the time when all the deepest and 

 most lasting impressions are formed) the business they 

 intend to follow. Agriculture more particularly in the 

 live-stock branch is not like an ordinary trade or pro- 

 fession, which admits of hard and fast rules being laid down, 

 and of being learnt in so many years, even after a man 

 reaches maturity. Its principles, whether they be acquired 

 by the farmer or by the labourer, have to be taken in little 

 by little, through a long period of time, which must embrace 

 a considerable proportion of his boyish days. The knowledge 

 must come, as it were, instinctively : it cannot be learnt by 

 rote. It would indeed be wrong to deny the obligation to give 

 every working man in the kingdom a good plain education. 

 Putting aside all considerations of sentiment towards our 

 fellow-men, and the necessity of having every one educated 

 who is to have a voice in the government of the country, 

 there is an undoubted advantage in having work performed 

 by the aid of that intelligence which accompanies education. 

 But what calls loudly for protest is the virtual prohibition 

 of the learning by boys, at the only time when they can do so 

 perfectly, of the one branch of their business by which they 

 themselves will live and in time rear families. The present 

 system is much too one-sided. It is the extreme into which 

 we have fallen, after a long period of deficiency in the branch 

 which now receives too much attention. Youth is entirely 

 spent upon book-learning; interest and inclinations which 

 must develop are led into channels far away from the 

 employments of adult life ; work, when it has to be done, 

 is performed as a drudgery and with a heavy heart ; the 

 frame is not trained, while it is being built up by Nature, 

 to dexterity and efficiency, nor yet is it strengthened and 

 enlarged by that practice which always precedes efficiency. 



