306 THE HUMAN ELEMENT 



it seems, calls for a certain degree of skill, a great 

 amount of perseverance, and, also, a more or less 

 substantial capital, if it is to bring in a living. 



So the ' three acres and a cow ' remedy (especially if 

 the acres are to be owned) is, by itself, no remedy at 

 all ; and so, too, must the reader see that the ordinary 

 ' unemployed ' of our large towns, and the ne'er-do- 

 wells of urban life in general, are not the type of men 

 who could be settled on the land straight off as small 

 holders, whatever else might be done with them. 



All the same, I think there is a distinct and even a 

 desirable opening in the industries in question for 

 certain other types of individuals from the towns. 

 Apart from the factory workers who have gained ex- 

 perience on allotments (as at Aylestone), there are 

 men who, though intelligent, capable, and willing, are 

 physically unfit for the stress and strain of life in great 

 cities, especially when close confinement in an office or 

 counting-house may be included therein. Others there 

 are who, though considered ' too old ' for the employ- 

 ment on which they have hitherto been engaged, still 

 possess an amount of energy and vigour, the devotion 

 of which to a healthy rural pursuit would not only 

 provide them with a fresh and a more or less profitable 

 employment, but would enable them, in effect, to 

 ' renew their youth.' Others, again, the sons of manu- 

 facturers, business men, or professional men, might well 

 start in the country in some occupation which either 

 appealed to their tastes more, or would suit the con- 

 dition of their health better, than following in the foot- 

 steps of their fathers. At Evesham there are several 

 young men of this class who, having developed a ten- 

 dency to consumption, took to the fruit industry in 

 preference to entering the paternal mills, learnt the 

 business, spent their days in the open air in the mild 



