86 THE LAND AND ITS PROBLEMS 



possible development in both urban industries and in 

 agriculture. 



Elementary education in Belgium, as in most of the 

 continental countries, has this good feature that it 

 instils a love of country life and country pursuits ; with 

 the result that a much larger proportion of the children 

 than is the case with us definitely wish to remain in 

 the country. It is easier in Belgium for the schools 

 to do this than it is here, for the children are nearer 

 to the practical work being done on the land ; they 

 see their parents at work ; the spirit of emulation is 

 stirred, and in the holidays they work along with their 

 parents. 



Here the father and older brothers are probably 

 working on a large farm, at some distance it may be from 

 the cottage, and the children in consequence do not 

 grow up in touch with practical work ; and when they 

 do go to work for a farmer, at the age of fourteen, it 

 rarely happens that they are directly under the father's 

 influence. Indeed, it is to be feared, the influence to 

 which they are subject is often far from good. 



The coming development of the continuation day 

 school, with its consequent prolongation of educational 

 and mental discipline, will prove of untold value to our 

 rising generation if it is run on sound lines. 



FRANCE 



It is the wonderful thriftiness of the cultivators of 

 the soil that has made French agriculture what it is ; 

 roughly one-half of the population live on and by the 

 land. 



The French Government, more perhaps than the 

 Government of any other great country, consciously 



