68 PROBLEMS OF VILLAGE LIFE 



five, and allow each member of it one penny 

 for each of his or her three meals a day. This 

 is not an excessive demand many animals 

 receive more than this but it means 8/9 a 

 week for the family. An Oxfordshire house- 

 wife would, then, have some 4/- left for clothes, 

 boots, coals, oil, insurance money, and so on, 

 including, in many cases, 1/6 to 2/- for the 

 rent. The wives of our poor villagers show 

 real ability in the management of their humble 

 budgets, but all said and done, what room is 

 there for the joy or amenities of life in such an 

 environment ? " It's not living, sir," I have 

 often been told, " it's only pinching and 

 starving." Nor is there anything in the 

 character of farm-work which should neces- 

 sarily condemn it to so inadequate a recom- 

 pense. The current description of it as 

 *' unskilled " is most misleading, and even 

 were the term justified one may fairly ask why 

 a docker or a bricklayer's labourer should 

 receive so much more a week than an efficient 

 farm-hand. The latter understands plough- 

 ing, ditching and draining, the care of animals, 

 and the other tasks which make up the day's 

 work on a farm. This is very far from being 

 unskilled work, and requires infinitely greater 

 ability and experience than carrying mortar 

 up a ladder or wheeling boxes along a quay. 



