LABOUR. 289 



for the labourer who is about to be called upon to yield 

 work of a higher order than heretofore ? The labour which 

 we require for " intensified " Agriculture is likely to become 

 progressively of a higher and higher type. Men may be 

 trained to that. But it presupposes learning. If our 

 employers would encourage capacity by offering better 

 wages for that which is worth more money, as they pay a 

 higher price for superphosphate which is richer in the con- 

 stituent which gives it its name, the higher price accorded 

 to more efficient labour would be likely to produce greater 

 efficiency. 



Apart from what may be accomplished in school, given a 

 more distinctly " agricultural " tone, there is probably 

 a good deal that may be done in after- school da3/s, if the 

 right note can there be struck. And the national gain in 

 prospect is worth the sacrifice of working for it. 



Our would-be reformers ask for better wages, shorter and 

 fixed hours, and for fixed holidays or half -holidays for recrea- 

 tion and rest. Our rural labourers themselves understand 

 their own case very much better, and any one acquainted 

 with the conditions of agricultural work cannot be at a loss 

 how to judge in the matter. Rural labourers are the last 

 to be so unreasonable as to expect that agricultural employ- 

 ment, with all the uncertainties of weather and seasons 

 to contend with, should be regulated by the stroke of the 

 clock. In no occupation is it more necessary to take the 

 tide of opportunity when it offers " at the full." And if 

 there be, as there should be, kindly and sympathetic rela- 

 tions established between employers and employed, to make 

 the latter realise that they are not regarded as mere machines, 

 but as fellow-workers, to whom respect and consideration are 

 due, the employed will show themselves as anxious not to 

 jeopardise the employer's interest as they would be to sacri- 

 fice their own. I remember the harvest of 1858. I happened 

 to spend just that time with a landowner in Germany who 

 farmed his own land, as is usual in his district. It was a nor- 

 mal year up to a point, and everything went smoothly, until 

 the corn was cut and stooked. Then my host's barometric 

 instinct somehow told him that a change in the weather 



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