214 AWAKENING OF ENGLAND. 



which the hand-milking of cows by charm- 

 ing milkmaids and the dancing round the 

 Maypole were romantically coloured. She 

 even admired the life led by the German and 

 Breton peasant woman, and regarded the 

 loading of a dung -cart on a wet day by a 

 peasant woman as an idyllic occupation. 



" How would you like," I asked her in 

 reply, " to place your fair cheek against the 

 dirty flank of a cow witli its knotted, damp 

 tail flicking round your neck for ten minutes 

 or a quarter of an hour ? The first bar of a 

 Morris song would surely die upon your lips. 

 But if our dairymaids and cowmen had the 

 milk machine going they would not only feel 

 inclined, but possess the opportunity as well, 

 to dance round the Maypole." 



It is for all forms of brutalising hand labour 

 that I would introduce the machine. Of 

 course I do not regard milking as a form of 

 brutalising labour when the cow rises fragrant 

 from its dew bath on a misty May morning. 

 Then milking is quite a pleasant occupation. 

 But in winter it is not quite so pleasant, when 

 the cow sleeps in the byre and has to be 

 thoroughly cleaned before milking begins. 



For the shifting of heavy masses of farm- 



