ENGLISH AGRICULTURE. 145 



fertilizers, the proper cultivation of the ground, the best 

 methods of sowing seeds, and many other matters relating not 

 only to plants, but to animals. Such teaching would interest 

 the children, and it would do much towards producing a 

 greatly improved class of labourers in the country. The la- 

 bourers are the great barrier to agricultural improvement at 

 the present day. This I know from my own experience. It 

 is a very difficult thing to introduce any novelty. A master 

 may be perfectly convinced of the value of an improvement 

 or of a new implement, but the probability is that as soon 

 as he brings it home his labourers declare against it, and it 

 is henceforth condemned and thrown aside. You may order 

 out that implement and use it, and of course your order is 

 obeyed, but never again is it voluntarily used until the order 

 is repeated. The agricultural labourer is very conservative 

 with reference to his business, whatever he may be in his 

 politics; and what he of all things hates is any proposed 

 improvements in the operations which he is daily performing. 

 This is why I strongly hold that it would be most beneficial 

 that these subjects should be intelligently taught to children 

 in all country schools. 



