A HISTORY OF THE 



ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL 

 LABOURER. 



INTRODUCTION. 



WHEN German siege guns hammered at the gates of Western 

 civilisation and the waters of our island home were haunted 

 with enemy submarines, then it was that a " nation of shop- 

 keepers " awoke to the fact that the invaluable worker 

 was he who tilled its fields. Everybody who needed bread 

 to sustain life became alarmingly aware that it was the farm 

 worker who was the giver. A further discovery was made 

 by our manufacturing classes, and this was that the agricul- 

 turist was a highly skilled worker. Those who answered 

 to the Call of the Country to perform work of national 

 importance in the field and stockyard soon found how clumsy 

 were their attempts at agricultural work compared with the 

 skill of the ploughman, the shepherd, the stockman, and 

 even with that of the " ordinary " agricultural labourer. 



As we delve into history what astonishes us most of all 

 is, that there should be any agricultural labourers sur- 

 viving in our country ; for though agriculture is the oldest of 

 the crafts, since factory chimneys have flourished at its 

 expense, it has been the least honoured and the worst paid. 

 During the war, a Member of the House of Commons startled 

 that august assembly with the truth steeped in irony, that 

 it was more difficult to replace a skilled carter than a Cabinet 

 Minister. 



That we still have skilled agricultural workers amongst 

 us we owe to their supreme quality of patient endurance, 



VOL. n. 1 B 



