WHAT OF THE HARVEST? 237 



away from school without consulting the school managers, 

 and he said he did not care if they fined him, as it would 

 still pay him, as he was getting the boy for 6s. a week ! 

 Needless to say, the boy's father was a cowman employed 

 by the farmer and was living in a farm- tied cottage. 1 



This bears out a remark of a farmer at a meeting of the 

 National Farmers' Union who " had no hesitation in advising 

 any farmer who wanted a boy of that age (twelve) to take 

 him, and ask permission afterwards." z Mr. Nunneley 

 (a prominent member of the National Farmers' Union and 

 Chairman of the Northamptonshire Agricultural Committee) 

 in supporting the employment of boys at school said that : 



" hours were long, but not what they used to be. A boy's hours 

 were perhaps from half-past five in the morning till eight. That 

 was 14! hours. Well, 2.\ hours were taken up with meals ; 4 

 hours riding on a cart ; 4 hours driving ; and 4 hours waiting 

 till the cart was emptied or filled. (Laughter.) In fact, a boy 

 did not do more than 4 or 5 hours a day." 3 



Lord Chaplin advocated the wholesale surrender of little 

 boys to farmers, and in doing so made the significant 

 admission that they (the farmers) may get them, he said, 

 " from the Reformatory Schools, but what are they as 

 compared with the boys living under their own thumb and, 

 known to them."* 



Later, the Paignton magistrates went so far as to rule 

 " that the exigencies of the present time override all by- 

 laws relating to education and that a farmer may employ 

 a boy of eleven on farm work." 



These meannesses on the part of some farmers did not 

 pass unchallenged by the Press. The Morning Post, while 

 condoning the use of child labour, said the " farmer has come 

 to depend too much on cheap and casual labour, casual 

 because it is cheap, and cheap because it is casual." 5 



1 In West Sussex boys over twelve were being released from school 

 to work for lod. a day. West Sussex Gazette, February 18, 1915. 



a Middlesex Advertiser, March 6, 1915. 



8 Report of a meeting held at the Shire Buildings by the Northampton- 

 shire County Council. Northampton Mercury, March 20, 1915. 



The Vote, March 19, 1915. 



8 March 6, 1915. 



