568 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



tenancies or ownerships (as once much of it must have been), 

 since England is large, and in it there is room for every kind of 

 estate and holding. I do, however, desire to see small-holdings 

 indefinitely multiplied, for they produce a splendid class of men, 

 of which soon the country is likely to be much in need. More- 

 over, it looks very much as though ere long there may be but two 

 payable classes of farming: (i) that which is worked by capital- 

 ists on a large scale, with the aid of machinery for arable, and of 

 great herds of stock for pastoral lands ; (2) that which is worked 

 by the small-holder on suitable land and in the near neighbour- 

 hood of markets, with the aid of his own hands and family. 



Of this, at least, I am almost sure. Men will not return from, 

 they will not even cease to go to the towns, in order to become 

 day labourers on the land. But they will, in many instances, cling 

 to that land if their lives there can be made more pleasant, 

 especially if they can be given the interest of property in or on its 

 acres. In short, they will do for their own what they will not do 

 for another's, even though the actual gain be small and the life 

 hard. So, at least, I have found it in many places. 



There remains the question of rural education. It is generally 

 admitted, myself I have heard it from the mouths of many com- 

 petent witnesses, as readers of this book will know, that our 

 present system is a town system, and tends to turn people to the 

 towns. Agricultural classes have, it is true, been introduced, with 

 lessons in botany and other expedients, but, as I gather, with small 

 appreciable effect. The lad who is expected to deal with the land 

 and with animals ought to become practically acquainted with them 

 before he is twelve years old, otherwise, in the great majority of 

 cases, he will dislike the one and fear the other. How, then, is 

 this to be effected ? The answer is, as in the case of the credit 

 banks, by going abroad for an example. 



In various Continental countries also, I believe, in some of 

 the Australasian colonies I understand that the school children 

 are allowed out to work on the land in summer and kept to their 

 books in winter. Why cannot this system, with whatever local 

 modifications may be found necessary, be adopted in England ? 

 Some may reply, Because the country does not wish its youth to be 



