88 PROBLEMS OF VILLAGE LIFE 



to the cities. The self-confidence, general 

 smartness and superior clothes of the visitors 

 form a powerful stimulus to the young men 

 and women of the village to try their luck also 

 in an area of better pay and bigger oppor- 

 tunities. Literature, art and social conven- 

 tions unite in regarding the " yokel " as the 

 " infima species " of citizenship, and few girls 

 once emancipated from village life will return 

 to marry and settle down in the parish of 

 their childhood. Suppose again that a boy 

 of eighteen has summoned up courage to 

 enlist. In a year he returns on furlough in 

 his smart tunic, with the startling information 

 that in addition to good food and warm 

 clothes he finds himself at the end of the week 

 with five shillings or more in his pocket to be 

 spent as he likes. These youthful soldiers 

 are the best recruiting officers for our rural 

 villages. 



The inevitable replacement of human labour 

 by the use of machinery has furnished another 

 cause of the exodus from the country. The 

 advance in agricultural machinery has been 

 amazingly slow, for there is no striking 

 evidence of inventive ability about a reaper 

 or a drill, and even when such obvious con- 

 trivances were brought into being years 

 elapsed before they were widely used. Hence 



