THE RURAL PROBLEM. 29 



boys between 10 and 13 years of age. This class feU from 3,376 

 in 1901 to 587 in 1911. But from July, 1914, to June, 1916, some 

 15,000 boys under normal age had been released from school for 

 farm work, and the number is now probably 20,000. So there 

 are now some 30,000 boys under 14 years of age employed on farms. 



Some provision for the continuation of the education of boys 

 prematurely taken from school should be demanded on the return 

 to normal conditions, and the age for compulsory attendance at 

 school ought to be uniformly fixed at fourteen years. 



The reasons for allowing boys to leave school at thirteen years 

 of age are the demand of farmers for boy labour, and the parents' 

 need of the small earnings. A small increase in wages of adults 

 over the real value of pre-war rates would in most cases compensate 

 parents for the loss of wages of young boys, which do not often 

 amount to more than 35. or 4s. per week. The demand of farmers 

 will be formidable in several agricultural counties, and local effort 

 is not likely to be successful in raising the age for leaving school 

 fixed by the local education authorities. But the work of many 

 boys of thirteen years of age on farms is merely that of boot-black, 

 messenger, and general drudge. He is haK attached to 

 the kitchen, haK attached to the yard, and few of his 

 duties require much skill or intelligence. The age of fourteen 

 years is sufficiently early to begin learning the real work of 

 the farm, and ultimately much better results would be obtained 

 if part-time education could be continued for another year. 

 Where a boy had actually chosen to become a farm-worker, 

 the subjects taught might relate to the work of the farm, but the 

 humane aspect of education should accompany the purely technical. 

 Attempts to force village children into farm work will not succeed 

 and will indeed defeat their o\\ai aims. The harder the conditions 

 for the boy the greater is the incentive for the youth to migrate 

 to other employment. 



^^LLAGE LIFE. 



While the tendency during this century has been towards 

 more willing engagement in agriculture and residence in villages 

 there has been no real development in village life. Indeed the 

 tendency has been towards a centralization of life in the small 

 to\^Tis. The development of transport has much to do with this 

 movement, but general social tendencies towards centralization 

 are also partly responsible. The " general shop " of the village 

 is in many cases now but a shadow of what it was. Indeed, in 

 some villages, there is now no shop at all. The bicycle, the market 

 tram, and more recently the new development of the village 

 carriers' business by means of the motor van, have carried the 

 men and women to the shops of the local town. Also the great 

 multiple shops have been extending their trade to the villages 

 by means of horse and motor vans. In nearly every village, and 

 in most articles of its consumption, the " ready-made " and the 



