4 INTRODUCTION. 



to dr;i\v as easily through the luscious dc\v-sprent grass as 

 the fiddle bow ha< been fashioned to draw music from the 

 strings of the violin, 'i'hink, too, of the delicate touch of 

 this toiler of the lields as he sharpens the blade and lightly 

 rubs it with that finishing silky touch on the ringing curve 

 of steel. 



Ever since the man with the hoe was immortalised by 

 Millet he has been the symbol of ill-paid, unskilled labour. 

 ]->ut hoeing is not unskilled labour. The man who knows 

 how to use his hoe is careful not to deprive his tender nurs- 

 lings of root pasturage and leave them to wilt in the sun. A 

 held of roots can be ruined by unskilled labour, or given a 

 new lease of lite by the defi hand of the " ordinary " agricul- 

 tural labourer. 



He who is so glibly dubbed an ordinary agricultural 

 labourer, understands as a rule the skilled work which, if 

 sub-divided, would require a gardener to do one part and a 

 navvy to do the other. This is the work of hedging and 

 diu hing. '1 he technique ol laying a hedge is not learnt in a 

 day. The curve, the weight and the balance of the bill- 

 hook, the sla-her, and the fag hook have been conceived 

 and fashioned by the artist-hands that have tised them for 

 generati"us. Think of the deliberate stroke that goes to 

 the splitting of a branch so that it is not sundered and lives 

 to break into leaf and lill a gap in the hedge. To be able to 

 lay a live hedge which will break into blossom and leaf is to 

 be ablt to thread a pattern the artistry of which delights 

 tl.c eye of any live-stock keeper. 



As I look out of the window my glance falls upon a cot- 

 tage roof which shelters a farm worker who, to my know- 

 ledge, ha- not only ploughed, sowed and reaped corn for 

 his employer, thatched the farm ricks, painted the wagons, 

 and hroki n in the colts, but he has killed his neighbours' 

 pi 1 :- f<>r them, doctored their sick cows, (-lipped their horses, 

 fit aned out and repaired their wells, mowed their orchard 

 wivh a. seytho, planted fruit trees and driven bees 

 npty skeps. He has a knowledge of wild life which 

 he many a -p<>it-man envious; and with his 

 trong, deft hand lie has led to the market many an un- 



