LEADING FEATURES OP THE WHEAT INDUSTRY 201 



experiments appropriate to the resources of the school, 

 and calculated to bring out clearly the fundamental 

 scientific principles underlying the most important 

 agricultural operations." Such a programme is now 

 incorporated in our curriculum in the State schools, and 

 our teachers are pursuing it in a highly commendable 

 manner, which should once more turn the scales of public 

 opinion in favour of agriculture. 



In the chain of causation to bring about an acceler- 

 ation in the rate of growth of urban population to the 

 disadvantage of rural population, an important factor 

 is to be found in the increasing demand for labour in the 

 towns for handling primary products and performing 

 the official work. In our present organisation of market- 

 ing, the labour involved in handling produce is of 

 considerable extent, and moreover, not decreasing, while 

 the official work in inspecting and grading primary 

 products, as well as the expansion of postal, railway, 

 and other transport services, requires an ever-increasing 

 number of workers, many of whom have been drawn 

 from the country. 



Rising partly from this increased demand for town 

 labour is to be found another cause of no less importance, 

 in that a higher rate of wages rules in the town as a 

 result. Over long periods there is, undoubtedly, a steady 

 tendency towards the equalization of town and country 

 "real" wages, but in the present stage of transition the 

 town seems to offer a higher rate of remuneration for 

 skilled labour. Of more importance in this connection, 

 and exerting the same influence, are the opportunities 

 for pleasure, recreation, social life, better education, etc., 

 all tending to increase "real" wages in the town. There 

 is reason to believe that the present tendency is for the 

 wages of rural workers to improve at a greater rate than 

 those of urban workers, though there is still a consider- 

 able disparity. Labour conditions in the North, in the 



