28 THE RUEAL PROBLEM. 



expected to return to their ordinary vocations on the return of 

 peace, and many women who are not wholly self-dependent will 

 not continue farm work on the return of husbands, brothers, 

 &c. But many women will find it difficult to return to their 

 ordinary vocations. 



With decent prospects for male workers some would many 

 and settle do\\Ti in the villages, and it is desirable that they should 

 do this. For those that remain some kind of protection may bo 

 necessary, similar to that which may be provided for men. 



But the important considerations arise from official suggestions 

 that the number of women emploj-ed in agriculture should be 

 largely and permanently increased. The lighter branches of skilled 

 work in the dairy industry, market-gardening and fruit farming, 

 and poultry-rearing offer scope for the capacities of a number of 

 trained women, and some of those now employed will find positions 

 of a satisfactory nature in those phases of the industry. But the 

 prospects of the ordinary female field-worker cannot be regarded 

 as satisfactory. The work in itself does not offer a career. Too 

 much of it is of an unskilled and intermittent character. If the 

 woman is to marry and settle down, the field work is not a satisfac- 

 tory training for housewifery. Nowhere in country villages is the 

 art of the housewife at such a low ebb as in the districts in which 

 it is common for women to work in the fields. The effect of 

 unskilled field work on the character and bearing of the women 

 may easily be seen in some of the large villages and small towns 

 of Lincolnshire and Cambridge. The increase in the number of 

 women employed in casual and unskilled field work can only be 

 regarded by those anxious for rural welfare, as it is by the labourers 

 in some midland counties, as a social calamity. Standards of life 

 adopted in modern cities are apt to be false and misleading when 

 transferred to rural areas ; but there is no reason why the standards 

 of life in villages, although not exactly similar to those in towns, 

 should not be equally attractive and satisfying. In many cases 

 the refusal of women to work in the yards and fields began with 

 the farmers' wives and daughters, and later spread to the female 

 folk of the labourers' families. At the time this occurred it was 

 a real advance, but in some branches of work, such as the finer 

 processes in the preparation of various commodities, and in packing, 

 there is scope for improvement by the aid of women's skill. A 

 return of women to the unskilled work means, however, a wastage 

 of human capacity and the decline of rural civilisation to a standard 

 which can be compared only with that existing in the more backward 

 parts of the Continent. 



Previous to 1914 the decline of the employment of children 

 in agriculture was commonly welcomed, except by a few farmers 

 in some districts. In 1901 there were nearly 20,000 boys between 

 the ages of 10 and 14 years employed in agriculture, and in 1911, 

 less than 10,000, or less than half the number at the previous 

 census. The decline in number was especially important among 



