Chapter 11 

 TKAINING FOR COUNTRY LIFE 



The first, and it may in truth be said, the main point to consider 

 in connection with the problem of rural reconstruction is the human 

 material that will have to be dealt with. Under both aspects 

 coming into account, alike as making for economic — that is, in this 

 case above all things agricultural — prosperity, and as providing 

 for a sufficiently abundant, and prosperous and contented rural 

 population, it is the human folk entering into the problem which 

 have first to be thought of. It is they who can, by their skill and 

 enterprise, make a prosperous agriculture ; it is they, once more, 

 who can, as a host of social items, make such a network of social 

 communities as will provide a trustworthy foundation for happy and 

 contented rural life. A proper human personnel being provided, all 

 the rest that is needed will follow of itself. A good tree will bear 

 good fruit. 



The most conclusive proof of the necessity of rural reconstruction 

 is the paucity of that material, which forms the subject of so many 

 and so frequently repeated complaints. And not only its paucity, 

 but no less its generally depressed and despondent condition, 

 indicating both mental and often also bodily inertness ; the general 

 inefficiency of that portion of it which is called upon to earn its 

 living by wage labour ; the failure of a large part of that other 

 portion, which ranks as employers, to produce what the country 

 expects that it should provide — a general dulness, inelasticity, 

 unprogressiveness. The people are few, and most of them appear to 

 have no heart to throw into their life and work. They plod on, 

 using their country life as, according to a proverb, a man uses dirty 

 water, ready to throw it away as soon as he can secure clean. Mental 

 eyes are directed towards the town, the factory, or else towards 

 foreign lands. 



Now here is a state of things that imperatively calls for a remedy. 



You cannot have a prosperous country without a sufficient number 



of people to live in it, to labour, to produce, to accumulate wealth. 



You cannot have good labour, resourceful planning of work and 



enterprise without heart thrown into it. You cannot have " heart " 



thrown into it except you have a temper attuned to both occupation 

 r.b. o 



