RURAL ENGLAND OF TO-DAY 55 



surface ; that the increased use of machinery 

 is very far from compensating for the skilful 

 labour which is brought to bear on the 

 capabilities of the soil in France, Denmark 

 or Belgium. 



The prosperity of English farming is handi- 

 capped at the start by the fact that four 

 classes landlords, clergy, tenant-farmers and 

 labourers derive support from the soil. 

 This disadvantage is accentuated by the 

 absence of serious purpose in the pursuit of 

 agriculture. To go no further, it is notorious 

 that young Englishmen who, through idleness 

 or incapacity, are quite unfitted for any 

 ordinary career, are frequently regarded by 

 their parents as likely to succeed in agriculture. 

 " Being a pupil in Denmark," writes Mr. 

 A. W. Taylor, " does not mean that a young 

 man allows his father to pay a high premium 

 for him, and then lounges about on horseback 

 or on foot and shoots rabbits and shirks his 

 work, as too often happens in England. 

 Danish pupils do ordinary agricultural work, 

 cart manure, milk the cows, dig, plough, and 

 sow. In a word, they earn their wages by the 

 sweat of their brow like ordinary labourers. 

 All these things a Danish farm pupil does, even 

 if, as in a case which I know of, he happens 

 to be a member of the royal family." 



